Allie's New Blog Addresses

For those of you SUDDENLY not able to read Allie's plethora of blogs:

I was checking my blog lists and lo and behold I found that Allie had created more new blogs. I can't remember how many. There was one called sweetsurprisesbakeryusa. Another recipe blog. And then I found alliesapple doesn't NOT exist anymore. She figured out how to export her blog entries to a different new blog address. And Princess Pastry does NOT exist anymore either.

Here are the new addresses:

Kewl Kreative Brain: **see update below.
Princess Pastry (Mom's Cookbook) is now: zelittlechef.blogspot.com

I went and deleted 6 of her blogs. She is grounded from the computer this weekend. :)

*** Update: Little girl got on a computer and changed it from kewlkreativebrain.blogspot.com back to alliesapple.blogspot.com after I told her that changing addresses weren't very convenient for people reading her blog - as in - "they can't find it anymore!". I spoke too soon! I just found out that she restored alliesapple.blogspot.com and even changed the page backgrounds and all, SO LEAVE YOUR LINKS THE WAY IT IS. It's good she is tech-savvy and creative, but man, it's a bit much sometimes.

My 202nd Post - What's New?

So I looked on my dashboard and saw that my post titled "If I don't post..." was my 200th post! I have a bazillion pictures on my memory card of the kids and preschool, but haven't uploaded them so here's a brief update since I posted two weeks ago (has it been that long?) before I forget what happened this week:

- Allie started ballet on Monday. I have been telling her we would go to try the class out at SAS and see how she likes it. So on Monday we went and she loved the class. She took ballet from an awesome studio in Utah and wanted to start dancing again this year. She looked so pretty in her usual ballet attire (I forgot how ballerina-like she is!). We both thought the Academy of Ballet in Utah is WAY better - Owner/Teacher Lynne Thompson is amazing, but since the best ballet place is supposedly in Tempe, SAS will have to do.

After we got home from dance, we did FHE. Starting next week, Collin will have soccer practice right before Allie's dance class.

- Collin's first soccer practice was Wednesday night. He was so excited to go and loved his cleats, shinguards and knee socks (which he made fun of before we signed up for soccer). My brother Archie is a big-time soccer player (he played in a competitive league in the Bahamas) and was so excited to hear Collin is doing soccer this fall. Collin's coach is nice and fun, couldn't believe he warmed right up to him and his teammates at first meeting.

- Piano for Allie starts in a week or so.
- Maddie has a thing for writing and scribbling on things like walls.
- Kevin is in a painting phase. He rolls on the paint, I cut in. We painted our master and guest bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It is nice to see the white walls disappear.
- Preschool is going well. I think my two classes are acclimating to the routine. Everyone works hard and 2 hours seems like it gets over fast.
- Allie wants jumping beans for pets. We made a deal - she'll get them if she did chores on time for two weeks. She always makes deals with me.

I'll update with photos when I get them uploaded.

Nostalgia Night

I couldn't be there to help in person, so I volunteered to donate my time in putting together a ticket design for the evening (and do some online publicity). A little something from their class president :). Who knew you could be here in Arizona and help plan an event via email, facebook, and blogging - with other alumni who are in India and the Bahamas? Wouldn't have been possible 13 years ago. But I'm hoping the rest of the team will approve. (yup, our school color was aqua and I wore an aqua uniform with a white belt and cravat every day to school).

first draft only

If I don't post...

that means I am just really busy getting into the swing of school things. The kids started school last Wednesday and this week, we started our preschool classes at home. I have 8 kids in my preschool, split into two classes that meet M/W and T/Th, for 2 hours each time. I am pretty much booked until 2:45 every day of week except for Friday. I also have enough kids on my waiting list to form 3 classes for next fall - and I am trying to picture what that would be like :), seeing this is how my schedule goes now with only two classes:

6:30 wake up and get the kids up (except Maddie)
7:00 help the kids get ready for school, go downstairs and get Allie's lunch ready, get the kids' breakfast
7:40 breakfast is done, kids are ready to go in the car
7:45 carpool picks my kids up
8:30 I'm ready (clothes + makeup + ponytail, or flat-ironed my hair), Maddie is up, feed her breakfast
9:00 -10:00 make bed, pickup countertops, clean kitchen while Maddie plays and makes more messes
10:00 - check email, get preschool snacks ready to go, go run errands (grocery store, paint store, whatever, as long as it takes less than 40 minutes)
10:45 - be at Collin's school to pick him up
11:00 - home again, feed Collin and Maddie lunch
11:20 - Put maddie down for a nap
11:30 - 1:30 PRESCHOOL
1:40 - 2:10 kids are finally all picked up, I have some FREE time to do whatever (ok, that really means clearing kitchen from lunch, feeding Maddie, etc)
2:15 - pick up Allie from school
2:45 - back home for the day. Kids eat, do homework. Piano classes for both Allie and Collin.
5:00 - Kevin is home, time to get dinner on the table
6:00 - 7:00 - Dinner, Clean up (sometimes it doesn't really happen at this hour!)
7:00 - FHE on Mondays, Mutual for me and Activity Days for Allie on Wednesdays.
8:00 p.m. - hang out with the family in our room, put Maddie to bed.
9 p.m. - last of bath time, brushing, prayers, etc.
9:30 I want the rugrats out of my room! I'm sleepy at this point.
10 p.m. - I should be sleeping but still awake to get prepared for the next day!

Whew! So if I don't have any new posts for a while, you know what I'm up to.

Ashes Ashes

Miss Maddie's favorite song to sing is Ring Around the Rosie. She sings, "Ashesh, ashesh, down!" It's so cute! She also likes to name and point to body parts, including eyes, nose, "earsh", "peet", belly, button (for bellybutton), "moush" (mouth), head, hands, "hur" (hair), pace (face). She says "Money" or "Mantie" when we practice saying "Maddie". She babbles likes crazy!

First Day of School

at home; right before opening ceremonies

at home; right outside his classroom

Today is Collin's first day in Kindergarten and Allie's first day in 4th Grade at the American Leadership Academy (ALA)! Last night we did a Back to School FHE and Kevin gave both of them father's blessings (which he does every year before school starts). I think both Kevin and I were feeling a little nostalgic just thinking about how fast time has gone by (AGAIN!) and how much the kids have grown, even just this summer.

The kids woke up on time today and got themselves dressed fast. Collin thought having his shirt tucked in was "dorky" but Allie and I quickly reminded him it was a school rule, and everyone's shirts will be tucked in at school. Collin was so excited to find little notes for everyone from Kevin on the countertop, and felt very special to get a little something from Dad. What a nice surprise!

Allie with her class at opening ceremonies

I juggled my DSLR and mino and Maddie in a stroller at their school. I took Collin in to his classroom while Allie waited with Maddie. Collin quickly found his desk and was happy to see that the desk he picked was still his desk! (we saw some that got moved).

at his desk; telling me not to use the flash!

I was videotaping and taking pictures at the same time, and since I had to use my flash, Collin told me to "STOP taking pictures with a FLASH". Pretty funny! No, I wasn't the only one with a big DLSR - can't miss the excitement of the very first day at school, you know?

Anyhow, when I got out of the classroom, somehow my fingers managed to press just the right buttons to delete all the videos on my mino, so I had to go back in the classroom to re-tape the whole first day experience! Whew, with five minutes to spare to take Allie over to the opening ceremonies.

Wow, I hadn't seen a first day of school opening ceremony with uniformed young men bearing the colors/flag. It was neat and very patriotic!

Now I am sitting here blogging and actually got all the photos off the memory card to post here, while Maddie naps. The quiet house is nice, but I miss the other little voices. But like I said time flies, only half an hour more and I will be going to pick Collin up from school! Time to get the upstairs straightened up.

Adding to my year supply of cereal for $7!

I got 20 boxes of Kellogg's cereal today - they are on sale at Basha's for $2 each. I had them price-matched at Walmart, and paid only $27 total after using $13 worth of clipped coupons (online and the Sunday paper). Kelloggs also happens to have a $10 rebate offer going on right now if you buy any 10 Kellogg's participating items in a single transaction.

After my rebates, the final price for 20 boxes of cereal will be *drumroll please*

$7 or 35 cents per box!

If you think that's awesome, I have a friend who is getting the same deal for a whopping

20 cents per box.

Dress-Up, Maddie-style

Dress-up days are here! Maddie stepped out of my closet looking like this the other day. She thought it was pretty funny that her heels made such a loud noise on the wood floors. I love the choice of necklace (courtesy of Allie) and the missing pants.

July 17-18: First Camping Trip

Our kids look really happy?!

Last weekend was our ward campout AND our first ever family camping trip. The kids went up with Grandma and Pop on Thursday morning. They were so excited to be in their trailer. And I felt a little weird not having those two around all day Thursday. It was way too quiet in the house. That's when I called Kevin and told him we need another baby to fill up the quiet. He wasn't too convinced. He missed the kids way too much on Thursday. We went to Arriba's for a dinner date that night.

We drove up to camp on Friday morning - Kevin happened to have a meeting in Payson so we stopped there for a good couple of hours. What did I do? I went to Walmart for 1.5 hours - Maddie and I tried out all the toys, looked at all the books, etc. Then for the last half hour I sat in the car sorting my mountain of coupons. I was glad that I had some dead time to sort those things. We got to our camp around 12:30 p.m. and set up the tent (Thanks Adam and Kristie!).

I helped with the ward program and visited with our good friends until dinner then it was time to go to bed. The program turned out great, and although we wanted to, we didn't have time to roast marshmallows together. Maddie wasn't tired eventhough it was almost midnight. Collin zonked out while watching Nacho Libre. I cleaned the kids off with baby wipes (they were SOOO dirty!) before they dozed off to bed. Maddie finally went to sleep after midnight.


It was a good night - although Kevin and I really didn't get any sleep. We were warm but the mattress! It was you know just an air mattress. So when we woke up I asked Kevin if he got some sleep (cause I didn't) and he said NOPE. That made two of us. The kids woke up in a deflated air mattress - time to throw that thing away! But at least they were still wrapped up in two big fluffly quilts. We enjoyed a great breakfast courtesy of our ward, and then Kevin and I packed up the tent and our belongings. We sat and talked with friends and family some more, ate some lunch, and headed back to town.

We had such a good time up there.

a BIG PLUS for me was that Kevin unloaded everything from our car to our laundry room, washed and scrubbed all our dirty shoes, and loaded the washer with our camp laundry all before I even could think of any of that stuff. He had everything cleaned up before 8 pm, even took the car to the car wash for me.

What a great husband!!!

I know.

Unbelievable.

Allie will have to look VERY hard for someone to match up to this in the future.

Not sure how I got lucky.

Now for some picture overload:

Maddie found this already-eaten silly candy pacifier (the candy part is gone, she's just sucking on whatever the candy was stuck to)

Having fun in the hammock with Travin and Jace

Maddie spent a lot of time wandering around the camp and sitting in the dirtiest chair of the three kid kind we brought with us.

She loved the licorice!

The kids played Old Maid

Allie spent LOTS of time running around with her girlfriends Olivia and Vienna (seen here), also Isabelle, Bailey and Morgan among others. She came home to eat and sleep.

Collin played with Kyle. Here they are pretending to ride a quad. Collin loved riding the rhino with the Merrills.

Here is Maddie throwing a fit. She woke up so early on Saturday (6 a.m.) after not going to bed until after midnight, that by 8 a.m. she was so tired she threw this fit.

Not even an hour into our drive home, all the kids zonked out!

The whole family of campers: Merrills, Drysuit, The Other Harris, G and P Harris and us

Collin loves this quad. Hint, dad.

Collin and Jace were out before the movie was even over.

We (me, Danette, Kevin & Mark) couldn't have been more color-coordinated.
Excuse the non-makeup.

Allie enjoying the warm fire

Until next year!

July 6th - Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house, Reunion

On Monday July 6th, we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house in South Jordan. We went with our dear friends the Harrisons. It is such a pretty temple! The kids were reverent, except for Maddie who wanted to walk around by herself without her shoes on. If we didn't let her go she screamed bloody murder (in the temple!). Luckily the people there were nice and thought she was so cute walking around like that. It was such a neat experience for the older ones to see the temple inside for the first time in their life. Allie thought the baptismal font was awesome!

Scott, Preston and Jennifer Harrison - we can spend all day talking

After the open house, we all enjoyed cookies in a reception tent decorated really fancy (a la razmataz if you ask me) and then went to lunch at Bajio's with the Harrisons. It was great to see and visit with our old friends and get to go to a new temple open house.

Kevin, Bishop Bliss, and Zach

Later that day, we met up with Bishop and Sister Bliss, Zach (soon-to-be famous author) and Sharlee Largey for an old bishopric reunion at Brick Oven. The highlights of our time in law/MBA school were the years Kevin served with Bishop Bliss and Zach. It was so nice to reminisce about old times in the BYU 109th ward with them.