Cleaning out the fridge

I usually don't find cleaning the fridge to be a fun thing, but today it was not only fun but entertaining too! I pulled all of the condiments off the shelves and set them on the counter, then cleaned all the shelves. It all started with the sweet pickle relish. I was at the sink and noticed Matthew studying the jar. He wanted to know what it was and I told him what it was called and that it was little pieces of pickle that had been cut up. Hmmmm.... I could see the wheels spinning. He then told me that he loves pickles. I asked if he wanted to try it. Of course he did. I believe his response was "That was delicious (his new favorite word)". He then went back over to the counter to check out what else might be new and delicious. That silly boy tried chili sauce, teriyaki marinade, barbecue sauce, taco sauce, mustard and of course all the favorites like redi whip, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce. It took me twice as long to clean but I was so entertained! He never spit anything out, he would just call some things spicy. His favorites were parmesan cheese and the "I can't believe it's not butter" spray (gross, I know!) I did have to say no to a few things like tabasco sauce and horseradish, come on what kind of a mom would I be if I gave him a spoonful of those! I finally had to take his spoon away and tell him there would be no more samples squirted on his spoon. Thanks Matthew for making cleaning the fridge fun!

Babies & Bandaids?

Luke cut his finger tonight and I couldn't get it to stop bleeding. I finally decided my best bet was a bandaid. I immediately realized it wasn't such a hot idea, he couldn't keep it out of his mouth. It was off in less than 5 minutes. Babies and bandaids don't mix!

Happy Birthday Judd!

Judd turned 33 yesterday. Kind of like my birthday last Saturday we did stuff around the house. It's hard not to when it's a Saturday. We ran a few errands, one of which was to take my camera to get fixed. And we made it to the Home & Garden Show (or Idea Fair, whatever they call it these days) and grabbed a few flowers for the yard. Yay!! After dinner we sang to him and ate cake and ice cream & gave him his Bday present, an Ohio State hat that actually fits!

Make a good wish!

Daddy & the kiddos

I am ashamed to admit that I have never once in our 11 years of marriage made Judd his favorite cake. I've bought, but never made it. That's horrible huh?! His favorite is German Chocolate. Judging by the picture I don't think I could compete. Maybe next year I'll give it a try!

After the kids went to bed we had some friends come over to play Rock Band. It was lots of fun! We rocked out and snacked out on goodies! Thanks guys for coming over to celebrate Judd's Birthday!

I think the Birthday crown is too small!

The band (minus Jill & I)

Happy Birthday Savannah!

Today is Savannah's 7th Birthday! I can't believe what a big girl she is, Judd and I are so proud of her! She is thoughtful, loving, caring and passionate. I love you Savannah, Happy Birthday!

The boys and I went to school to celebrate with her classroom. I was VERY impressed. Her teacher made her a special Bday hat. Then she sat in a chair as her teacher read her special bday book her classmates had made for her. After each one Savannah would thank the person, using their name, and they would say your welcome and then she'd go to the next one. If they asked a question of Savannah in their letter her teacher would stop and let her answer that person, making eye contact. Way to go Mrs. Bruner for teaching some great Bday ettiquette!

Her Bday party started at 5:30. We ate pizza, opened presents and ate cake and ice cream. We then went to see the Hannah Montana movie. I have to say it was better than I expected. Sorry there aren't many great pics - I dropped my camera today and broke it. So sad!!! Luckily Judd just bought me one last night that was to take on our upcoming trip to Dland. It's very small compared to my giant Rebel XTI. I haven't even had a chance to look it over but Judd grabbed it to see what we could get once I realized that my 5th child was broken. Sorry this is about Savannah's party not my camera.

Chit chatting over a pizza dinner

Opening presents


Matthew so badly wanted to blow out those candles

I made this cake this morning and I had to take a picture of it because I was proud of myself and I'm not ashamed to say it!

My friend Jill went with us and I forgot she had taken this picture with her phone. This is a picture of the girls at the theater by a very risque statue - oh la la!! Silly girls!! Thanks Jill!

Let the party's begin!!

It is officially Birthday season in the Lavender house! My birthday kicks it off and Luke's finishes it. So stay tuned to see 4 out of us 6 celebrate our birthdays all in the next two weeks! My Birthday festivites started on Friday night. My friend and I went shopping and got pedicures. It was fabulous! While we were gone this very nice man installed these fabulous storage racks in my garage, see.......

There are 3 of them and they're each 4 x 8 feet, hold 600 lbs and are what I've been wanting since we moved into this house. Now this may seem silly to all of you but these racks make me giddy happy! He also put in some pulley bike hook things (technical term there) that make the bikes go all the way up to the top of the ceiling. Nothing like taking advantage of my way tall garage ceiling. So when my friend and I got home to these wonderful racks we just had to fill them. The boys played Rock Band Metallica and we had so much fun organizing and cleaning my garage. We decided we work great together. Anyone need a garage organized? We finally had to stop ourselves at midnight. Thanks Jill you were an awesome help!! Just to clarify it was a coincidence that they came to install the day before my Bday but I will claim anything as a Bday present when it makes me that happy!!

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Saturday was my official Bday. That morning at Barnes & Noble Haley's choir sang and Savannah had her artwork displayed. I'm so proud of my girls - they're awesome!

We then went home and did yard work and I sat and smiled at my garage storage (truly). That night we went to a Portland Beavers baseball game with some friends. It was lots of fun!! Thanks guys for the fun night!! Sorry Chelsea no pics but know that we had a blast!

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Because we didn't have time for my Birthday cake before we left for the game it went in the freezer and we had it tonight after dinner. The girls were so excited. Nothing beats a Baskin Robbins Cookies & Cream cake - delicious!! Matthew said it was the best Birthday cake EVER!!

I have to say after 3 days of celebrating my birthday I'm feeling like a spoiled lady!!

Happy Easter!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter day! I hope you all felt of the love our Savior has for us, especially today. It was evident to me in so many places and ways, my family, my freedom, the blossoming trees, even the rain. Because of my Savior I get to spend the rest of eternity with my family, and I absolutely adore them! I can't wait to check in on all of your Easter happenings! If you want a glimpse of our crazy busy times check out the next 4 posts! I can't believe we crammed that all into one day! It's time to put up my feet and call it a day!!

Gosh those are cute kids!!

Easter Dinner

For Easter dinner we had my parents over. Very low key, very relaxed and............ lots-o-food!!

Matthew literally crashed as we were getting ready to eat

My Grandma Smith sent us this cute bunny and we thought he'd join us at our dinner table

The hungry crew minus sleeping beauty (Matthew), Luke and the fabulous photographer (me!)

Egg Hunt

Traditionally we go to Grandma & Grandpa Lavender's house for our Easter egg hunt. This year Judd's parents were in Utah. I didn't realize how much my kids looked forward to it. I mean I did but I didn't - you know what I mean. Anyway I had to do one in place of our traditional one and because it was rainy outside the hunt was inside. My mom & I took the kids for a ride while my Dad and Judd hid the eggs.

Matthew filling up the basket

Do you see the egg?

Too easy!

Keeping digging in that couch Haley and you might find more than an egg!!

Easter morning

Easter morning was crazy! Haley woke me up at 5:15 wondering if she could go see what the Easter Bunny brought her. NO!!! Then at 5:45 both Haley and Savannah came in to plead their cases. Again NO!! I will not wake the boys up until 7, I told them. I thought I'd make good use of time and had them shower. Good thing because we didn't have much time after going over the inventory of Easter Bunny items. It's hard to have church @ 9am. But I am happy to report that we were not late to church this morning!!

Smiling faces are a good thing!

I was trying to get a pic of Incredible Hulk and it somehow focused on Haley

This is Christine the Chicken and the Easter Bunny brought her an outfit! For those of you familiar, yes she is a Webkinz

Grace the frog also got an outfit from the Easter Bunny

Luke was on a search and destroy mission

Dyeing Eggs

Yesterday was Luke's first time on a swing - he loved it!!

Refreshing

I don't want to start out negative but you have to understand what I'm used to in order to understand why I'm doing this post......

Most business dinners I find myself listening to other wives talk about their careers, their adventures here or there about the latest gossip in Hollywood (my personal favorite!!) basically anything that is foreign to me. Sometimes I want to say (politely) "I have no idea what you're talking about, I wipe bottoms, do laundry and dry tears for an occupation". But of course I don't say that I try to be so polite (Judd says I have to) and smile and nod and sometimes act like I know what they're talking about or understand their frustrations.

So when they ask what I do I get lots of pity looks and "Oh, ok" comments. BTW, what is meant by that?! The other thing I get lots of pity for is how young I was when I got married. Again "Oh". And to round up the top 3 things it would be the fact that I have a car full of children. I have actually been told, and I'll quote as best I can. "Bless you for having children. That was just something that never interested me". How do you respond to that - "Gosh thanks, I think".

So last week there was a business dinner. I was so thrilled.

But I have to say it was nothing like I expected.

Wife "A" and I sat across from each other. We had a fabulous time talking about carpools and nap times, what to do with the kids when it's yucky out and all the things that I specialize in. She wanted to see pictures of my kids and wanted to share funny stories about her kids that only moms could appreciate. As a background she's been married for 6 years, she's 44 and they have a 5 year old and a foster child that is 3 that they're hoping to adopt. She teared up as she told me about the struggle they went through to get pregnant with their 5 year old. She said she was so grateful to have that opportunity and experience. A great conversation!

Somehow the topic of how long we've all been married came up - oh boy!! When we said 11 years I could see the wheels spinning. She asked me how old I was. I am 30 I told her, almost 31 (yeah, that makes it seem so much better Kara!!) She said that she envied (yes, her word not mine) Judd and I for having gotten married at a young age. She thought that was great and she wished her and her spouse could have "grown up" together! Wow, really!!

So wife "B" and I didn't have much contact but when I got the picture of all of the kids out she wanted to look and she said "Wow, you have 4 kids?! That's so great. I always wanted more kids, I think I could have had a dozen." Her oldest 2 are in college and the youngest will graduate from HS this year. She said she absolutely loved being a mom and now doesn't know what to do with herself. She even said something to her husband like "I told you we should have had more". And when it was getting late and we realized what time it was she told wife "A" and I to hurry home to our children and just treasure this time when they're young because they grow too fast.

Ahhhhhhh..........................

Refreshing

This was one dinner I didn't have to remind myself of my value to my family and society on the way home.

So I went back and forth, do I post this or not? I obviously decided to. I know I'm not the only one who is a mom by occupation, has a car full of children and/or got married at a young age. I wanted us all to share in the knowledge that there are women out there (and not of my faith) who don't think we're from a different planet, who don't pity us or look down on us. I found this business dinner to be refreshing and I hope you did too!!

OMSI

We took the kids to OMSI today. For Christmas Judd's parents bought us a membership for a year. It was a little overwhelming (not the membership, OMSI). We told the kids we weren't going to do and see all today - and we didn't! But what we did do and see was lots of fun! This is the LAST Spring Break outing the Lavender family will have - I'm wiped out!!

Vacuuming up all the balls

Can you hear me now?

Are you my mommy?

Bottle rockets

Something about a mechanical robot thingy

No the picture is not sideways or upside down, this is how astronauts sit (so it says).

Bowling

Last night we took the kids bowling. They've been wanting to go for quite a while and it finally happened! We went with our friends the Allen's. It was a little caotic at first because it was new to everyone and they all wanted to bowl now! We finally assigned lanes to certain kids, I think it worked out?! Forget keeping score we were just having fun! As time went on just a few showed a true bowling interest. For some it was more fun to put our face in the blowers, push the refresh/restart (whatever it's called) button, and chit chat. Either way we had lots of fun!!

Time for the bowling shoes!

Is this my ball or your ball?

Call me crazy but I think these bowling shoes are cute. Actually Matthew was so sad he had to give them back that he cried. It was so heartbreaking!

Luke bowled a perfect game!!

Matthew getting ready to "Granny bowl"

Savannah was having lots of fun. She would have bowled all night

Haley was in a lane without bumpers and did a great job - she got a strike!