the derby...

The pinewood derby was last night. I think going into it, there were a lot of nerves, a lot of anticipation. Alex and his Dad worked really hard creating a top-notch car. He decorated it to the hilt...borderline overdecorated, but he loved it, so I loved it. As the race started, it didn't look like the silver beaut was going too fast, but that shows you how much I know!

Alex Schofield...1st runner-up! This cute boy was so excited. I was happy for him. I really was. Granted there were only 7 cars competing, but he smiled alot, laughed a lot. That's a sign of a good derby if you ask me. :)

the river...

Lizzy asks nearly every day to go on a walk on the river trail. I have been saying "maybe tomorrow" for the past week, so...we went. She wants to see the horses. So, we cut a few apples, bagged them and headed out the door. Usually the kids would just watch Daddy feed the horses. They are rather big...and intimidating. I'll have to explain my kids fear of ALL animals...another day...another blog. A few weeks ago we went to see the horses. They were all the way across the field, but with a little coaxing and whistling, they came to us. Lizzy wanted to touch one. This usually ends in her changing her mind, shaking, and crying. This last time though, she did it. Once she realized she could, she was obsessed. Feeding, touching, pulling, rubbing. She couldn't get enough of them. She was giddy. Almost crying she was so happy. I was too. We fed them again this last week. She's all over them. What's interesting is that Alex and Emily are still too nervous. My timid, worried little Lizzy was the first. That makes me so happy! :)

She is now the horse petting pro. See guys...like this.

You have to know how HUGE this is for my sweet Lizzy. I am so, so proud of her conquering her fear, however irrational it was.

It got a little cold on our walk...and mosquito-ey too :( so this was the solution these two came up with. Vest...care of Daddy. They looked so funny and they knew it too. VERY cute.

Beautiful light...beautiful girls.

And what is a post without my baby girl?

memorial day...

Mommy: Do you guys know who we are remembering today?

Emily and Lizzy: People who died.

Mommy: People who died how?

Emily: Smoking.


* So close. We are going to go have an FHE lesson now on the importance of those who have fought to make this country free. Happy Memorial Day to you all. :)

clippers...

OK...so this was Alex on Friday. He stayed home from school not feeling well. I desperately wanted to comb his hair, but he wouldn't have it. He kept asking me if he looked like David Cook. :) He needs a haircut really, really bad. I just can't organize myself enough to get him an appointment. Here's what's strange. I will cut the girls hair...no problem. I somehow manage a bob on Emily, but doing the guys is different for me. The blending, the clippers, ??? Saturday I was done...he needed the trim, I had no appointment, so I bought the clippers.

You know...all things considered, I don't think it turned out too bad. We could have stuffed a pillow with all the hair I cut off. Now Jessica and Brittany B....don't look too close, please. I told you, the blending intimidates me. I need a lesson, but until then...this will do. :)

I just want to give a shout out to my friend sidewalk chalk. HOLLA! I LOVE the stuff. The kids love it. $1 for a cute little bucket at Wally's. Hours of fun. And it all washes away with the next rain...which we have definitely had our fair share of around here.

Molly...post creation. Yum, yum, yum.

sisters...

This is my little sister Tracy. My Mom scanned these pictures today and posted them on our family website. They made me so happy. I am kindof consumed with thoughts of her right now. She is one of my truest friends.

She is hilarious. Really, really funny. We have some inside jokes that have kept us laughing for 2 decades. You can tell she thinks I'm pretty awesome in this picture. And to be quite honest...I am. I mean, Snuffaluffaguss (I have NO idea how to spell that) on my pj's. Very cool. We have been best pals our whole lives...with a brief hiatus during high school. :) She was WAY more popular than me.

She is strong. She is a cancer survivor. Here she is cutting and burning a cheapo wig after all her treatment was through. I remember getting the call from my Dad that she had cancer (Hodgkins Lymphoma). My world stopped. I couldn't carry on with my life. I was scared. But she made it. She is beautiful, isn't she?

She is brave. She is smart. She is fiercly loyal. Tracy is a peacemaker. I can definitely remember times in our younger days where that may not have been the case, but in general, she wants peace. She stays out of arguements. She doesn't gossip. She is hardworking. She gives at least 1/2 of her time to work. She is really, really gorgeous. I kindof live vicariously through her and her fashion sense. She is an amazing cook and loves to experiment and try all sorts of different foods. You're drawn to people like her. She's Tracy...my sister.

dc...

Yeah baby!!!

daughters...

Let me tell you about my morning. On Tuesdays, I go to the elementary school to volunteer with my kids classes. This morning I convinced Emily to change from her shorts to some cute red goucho-sweats. I love them...she never wears them. She was excited that it made me happy. When I got to the school, I realized it was a mistake. I could tell she had been tugging at them and pulling them up all morning. She's super skinny and why they don't put real drawstrings in those things is beyond me. Here was my solution. Send Emily and Lizzy to the bathroom together to switch pants! Lizzy is a wee bit thicker, so I thought it was a brilliant idea. Lizzy wasn't happy about it. Not at all. I convinced her to do it anyway. I'll give you gum. I'll give you starbursts. This will help Emily so much and make me so happy. Well, she did it, but she cried. She just knew that people would stare and wonder why her pants were different. I didn't really full understand the concern, but then I started to remember those feelings of not wanting people to stare. Being terrified of being the center of attention when I didn't want it. I didn't know what to do. I debated going home with the girls to get entirely new outfits. Lizzy figured that would be even worse.

I convinced them to just go with the flow. I handed them some gum and candy. Lizzy wanted to save hers for the walk home, Emily wanted to eat her candy right away. I obliged. They went back in to the classroom...Emily smiling, Lizzy terribly worried. All the kids were on the mats in the middle of the room for story time. Everyone WAS staring. 2 seconds later, Emily came out crying. Her (nasty) substitute teacher told her to spit out her candy. Emily was sad and embarrased, and I was angry to be quite honest. Let her chew the dang thing. Don't call her out in front of the whole class. She's a good girl. She doesn't deserve that. I tucked another one in her pocket for later and sent her back in. The entire class stared as she found her spot on the floor. She put her head down and cried some more. Right next to her was my sad, worried Elizabeth.

I stood there wondering what to do. I wanted so desperately to go in there and comfort them. Would that just embarass them more? I couldn't walk away. They were sad. I was sad. It's one and the same. I realized in that moment, that I had to let them experience whatever they were experiencing. There really was nothing I could do. That's a frustrating, helpless feeling. The good thing is, they are resilient happy girls. It would work itself out. I knew it would. So...I walked away. Now THAT was hard. Walking away is so hard.

family.

My family is HUGE...and I love it. We've got a Schofield and Temple family reunion of sorts coming up this summer, so all these people have been occupying my thoughts quite a bit. Here's the scoop. I come from a family of 8 (8 kids, that is). We are quite a diverse group...interests, ages, personalities. But, they are my favorite people in the world. I grew up with 5 cousins. Crazy, huh? My mom is an only child and my dad had one sister. I know, you're thinking that's tiny for Mormon families. That's because they weren't. My parents converted to the church just before I was born. I loved my WVA cousins. We would see eachother every summer and play, play, play. OK...so that's MY side.

Dave's is a bit different. He comes from a family of 13 (with NO twins...at least my mom got #7 & 8 at the same time) :) His dad came from 8, his mom from 4, so they had no shortage of cousins. Now that all of these siblings (his and mine) are having families of their own...it is sheer madness, but happy madness.

Let's see...cousins on my side = 13 so far, Dave's side = 34. WHOA! Those are some serious numbers! My kids actually have a hard time keeping track of everyone. Then, you add in to that all of our cousins kids (2nd cousins to mine, I guess) and the numbers get even bigger.

I guess what I am getting at is...I love my humongous family. I love them. To watch my kids play with their cousins makes me so happy. They are all good, good people. When I am with them, I sometimes zone out and think to myself...this is so cool. We are related. Forever. My favorite people in the world...and we get to be related.

*The first picture is Dave and Alex with the boys back in Delaware 2 summers ago (whoa...wake up Davey). 2 of my nephews are in the picture, my brother and his 4 boys (4 more nephews), and my brother in law. See if you can figure out who is who. :) The second picture is from the other day. Lizzy and Emily with 2 of Dave's cousins kids. SO many kids!

mothers...

Another Mother's Day has come and gone. It's different for me now that I have my own children. I love my mom more, I appreciate her more, I understand her more. I know what she sacrificed. She is THE most amazing woman. If you've met her, I'm sure you'd agree. When I'm sad, anxious, lonely, excited, happy...she's the friend I want to call. She is funny. Here we are doing "hey, hey we're the monkeys" down the street in Dover. We thought we were so funny...funny and cool. Look at Laura...you know she wants to join in but isn't sure if she's quite cool enough. This picture just makes me happy. I love you Mom.

I love being a mother. It's what I was born to do. It really is. I adore each of my beautiful, unique children so much. Each one is able to make me melt in their own way.

Alex is hilarious. He really is. At 9 years old, he still asks me to
scratch his back. I love that.

This girl loves her mama. She wants to be by me all the time. I
hope that never changes.

Peace. That is Lizzy. She is a giver. She is gentle, dainty. So, so
loving.

Molly is a firecracker. In every way. You meet her, you fall in love. This is her with Dave's mom Beverly. We love her and how influential she was in making Dave the kind person he is. We got to celebrate Grandma Bird's 90th birthday on Saturday! 90th. It was quite a bash. So great to see family and be reminded of just how much you love them and their company.

I need to end a little off topic. I do not like the dentist...in any way. Just writing about it makes my palms sweat. We've got 2 hygenists at our dentist's office. One (Steve) is gentle, apologetic. The other (what's her name)...let's just say- the opposite. She's nice enough, but by the time I am through with my check-up, my gums are bleeding, my shirt is wrinkled and soaked from all the wringing if my hands. I had Steve today...whew. I hate the smells, the sounds. He kept asking me if I was OK or if I wanted some laughing gas. The funny thing is...it doesn't really hurt, it's just the anticipation of something hurting. 45 minutes of anticipation.

do your ears hang low?

Ice-cream trucks (and their drivers) have a thing for our neighborhood...or at least the kids in it. Enough! Don't get me wrong, I used to love the things. I can remember hearing the music coming down the street, my heart starting to race, forking out 25 cents for a popsicle.

I realize that they are an integral part of a healthy childhood. I want my kids to have great memories. I don't want them to think that they got ripped off somehow. I'll get them some $2 popsicles...once or twice this summer. Here's the problem. This ugly gold thing (along with a white one too) comes rolling down our street EVERY day...sometimes twice a day. Sundays are included. It's generally at 7:30 at night...right when we're trying to calm things down in our house and get to bed. We're reading from Mosiah and hear "Do Your Ears Hang Low" or "It's a Small World" coming down the street and playing over and over and over again. My heart starts to race, but not for the same reasons it did all those years ago.

Seriously...every day? C'mon. And who drives these things? I don't even want to know.

uh-huh...

Yeah baby! Dave just told me about this last night. Came out on the 6th. Was that yesterday? I'm off to Wal-mart to make the purchase. BNL is one of my all-time favorite bands. Love all their stuff. Now a kids CD? I'll give you a review later today. I already previewed some of the songs and I'm thinking it's a must have for the little ones, just like this one that we bought a few years back. Yay...right when we were really needing some new tunes!

*UPDATE: We just listened. OK...why do I love these guys so much? Molly just spent the last half hour spinning in circles in the living room, and I spent the last half hour smiling. GREAT CD!

frenchy...

Please humor me while I tell you some funny stuff. Molly seems to be the meat of this blog lately. I don't know what to say other than that we spend an awful lot of time together these days, and her exploding vocabulary is making for some serious belly laughs.

We were on our way to Wal-mart this morning. First of all...she loves the place. It's where fruit snacks come from. Every time I would say Wal-mart, she would correct me. No mommy...la-la-la-ma-mite. La-la-la-ma-mite. Are you french or something little girl? So, so funny. When she says stuff like this, I can't get to my phone fast enough. I can't wait to hear Dave's response. I love laughing with him.

As we were driving home, she started to sing "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam". First of all, I could listen to her sing all day. Her voice, the way she mixes up the words. Sometimes she'll even blend 2 songs together. This from a little girl who wouldn't even talk 6 months ago. Anyway, I started singing along on the "a sunbeam, a sunbeam" part. No mommy...la-la-la sunbeam. What? Man, she makes me laugh.

daddy.

So I'm rocking Molly before her nap this afternoon. She loves me. I know she does. I'm pretty confident in my relationship with her. But today, she took her paci out, looked up at me and said:

I want Daddy. I so love Daddy. I SO love him.

She is so expressive the past few weeks. Words like maybe, sometimes, I think. I love it so much. I may just have to keep a tape recorder going all day to capture how gosh darn cute she is. I SO love her.

strappies...

OK...so I will just come right out and say it...I am obsessive. After seeing this picture of my Elsie girl (my favorite 3 year old niece ever) and her strappy sandals, I had to get my hands on some. Mind you, we just did the sandal shopping thing a few weeks ago. Since it didn't end quite how I wanted, I figured I was justified in getting just ONE more pair for each girl. Laura was willing to let me copy her fabulous style. Emmy and I went to the mall on our date the other night to make the purchase. These cute things came in all sorts of colors.

Now that we've got them home, and on these little feet, I find myself staring. Is that wierd? Yeah, I guess it is...but I love these darn sandals. So girly and feminine and happy. Now it's taking every single ounce of will power not to go back for seconds. HELP.

want to, mommy?

I uh go river trail, see duckies, frow bread in duh water. You want to Mommy?

It's too cold Molly.

Uh-uh, it's warm. It's warm Mommy.

No Molly, it's cold and windy outside.

Nuh-uh Mommy. No isn't. Trees not blowing down outside. It's warm.


Hmmm...maybe another day.