Time is Killing Me

I guess you could take that in a literal sense, since I'm not getting any younger. But today I was thinking more about how much my kids are changing and how fast it is all happening.

Of course, on any given day, I don't really notice, and on SOME days, I wish they were all grown up and moved away. (You know, in the same state so I could still visit.)

But today as I was looking for a specific picture, I found these.

They are not quite three years old, these pictures. But I just about died. They are so little. No one has glasses. Pearl is just a wee thing. Could this have been only three years ago? And what does that mean for the next three years?


I don't really have words for how I am feeling. I should go get another Snickers...

Odds And Ends

Good morning. The sun is shining and I should  be making lunch. So naturally, I am on the computer. (Don't worry, I just fed my kids some rice krispy treats, so they won't feel the hunger for another hour. You may shower me with compliments on my mothering abilities whenever you like.)

I have many pictures that don't really need a whole post of their own, so here is some of what has been happening around here.

June dressed up some of her sisters as 'China girls' the other day. I think she used kabob sticks for their hair.

Here is Pearl sporting my running shoes.

Have I mentioned that nothing in my room is sacred? I find my belongings all over the house. Usually I don't mind unless I need something right away and it is nowhere to be found.

June decorated another sister, but using a less friendly medium. For the record, stickers hurt when they come off the sensitive area near the eye.

But Pearl was pretty cute. Other funny things to note. She puts her own headbands on and never wears them right. And her 'Wild Child' shirt is on inside out.

Oddly, you would think June would know better since she came home from a birthday party like this.

June said the girls made duct tape pencils, but she decided to do something different with her tape. Awesome.

Hmmm....maybe this should have been a post about June. While she was snacking on snap pretzels the other day, she made the alphabet. She has done this before, but I am always impressed. I think she only couldn't make 'K' and 'S.'

I love it when I find random pictures that I didn't take. Apparently, one night when I was gone, the girls had a fashion hair dressing party. Of course, the only model was Tyler. But doesn't he look great?

Here are the culprits hair dressers.

I got my carpets cleaned this week. They really needed to be done, but nothing inspires me quite as much as a child (who shall remain nameless) stepping in dog poop and tracking it all over the house. I looked at the dozens of footprints through the living room and up the stairs and thought about crying, but figured calling the cleaners was a better use of my time. And don't worry, unnamed child was nice enough to donate some allowance to the cause. Everyone helped move furniture and it is at these times I realize we have too much stuff. I feel a Spring Purge coming on.

Took this picture of icicles a while back, but I love icicles and this winter has been great for them.

Also, after a hefty snowfall yesterday and the day before, guess who made a snowman??

If you guessed me, you would be wrong. Come on, haven't you seen my handiwork? Here and here? Nope, that amazing snowman was built by my neighbors, but I loaned them spray paint, so I would like to say I had a hand in it. It's a long shot, but it may be the best I can do.

Okay, got to wrap it up. I think I hear a turkey sandwich calling my name, or was that a Snickers?

Snow Details

Winter has been exactly that this year, WINTER. And thank goodness. Yes, there have been more accidents and injuries. (That is a given with freezing rain and sheets of ice.) But I am happy that the weather is doing pretty much what we should expect from Utah. The cold has been bitter some weeks, and the inversion....don't get me started. Today is one of the first days I felt good taking a deep breath outside.

We have had some beautiful snow this year. I love it when you can see the individual flakes. I had never seen those growing up as a kid in Washington. (It doesn't snow that much up there and often it is slushy.) In fact, I used to wonder as a child why they depicted snow as those detailed snowflakes. I had seen snow and it didn't look anything like that.

So whenever there are individual intricate snowflakes, I love it. Plus, they usually come down and pile up in wispy heaps of beauty. On a particular day in Idaho we were leaving to return home and it was so gorgeous outside. Everything sparkled and I couldn't stop myself from taking pictures. But let's be clear, pictures do not really catch glitter. (At least not the ones I take.) So I knew I would be somewhat disappointed with the end result. But I am still glad I took them.

It was a winter wonderland outside. Enjoy them in random order:

Amazing huh? I think God made snow beautiful because it is bothersome sometimes. Too bad inversion doesn't have a beautiful quality to it. But man made that, not God.

Baby Bliss Photo Shoot

I may have mentioned before that I am not a fan of newborns. Too little sleep and not enough routine. It messes with your brain. But I can certainly appreciate the beautiful round cheeks and sweet baby smell of someone else's child. I was very pleased to be able to take a few extra shots of baby Tammy Lee. And I was surprised how much she had already changed from when I last got her picture. It was fantastic to see her chunking up nicely since she was born so early.

I hope you enjoy these photos. And yes, they were taken back in December—hence the Christmas tree.

Such a lovely little one. Thanks Jett family.

I Had a Birthday Too

Technically yours truly had a birthday before the Stallion, but Tyler had his mind planning other events (which were fantastic and will be blogged about soon) so he didn't do much for my birthday. Not that I didn't  have a great day.

I was wished many birthdays of happiness, and of course the kids made sure that Dad got me something. They get almost more excited than the parents around here. (Well, of course they do. They aren't the ones getting wrinkles and white hair.) Here is Daisy leading me down to my presents.

Although I didn't have many, there was a throne made for me. What girl wouldn't feel special?

I think Pearl is singing Happy Birthday to me here.

I loved my gifts. Tyler got me a VERY LARGE die. (Have I blogged about my dice fetish yet?) And then he got me some clocks. I love me some clocks too.

Tyler thought he was funny because he got me a Salvador Dali style clock, but he said it was very fitting, because I am the queen of melting things.

In fact, he knew just the spot to put it.

I haven't documented all the things I've melted on the stove because there are too many, but here is a good example.

The girls were exceedingly sad that there was no birthday cake, but I have become more adamant in recent years that I don't want to make my own cake. (No fear, the girls are just a couple years out from experimenting. I see some really interesting birthday cakes in my future.) But they couldn't get over the fact that I wouldn't get a birthday wish. So, I improvised.

And they sang to me again and I blew out my candle match and made my wish.

Oh, and please notice how nice my nails look in that last picture. I haven't bitten them since last year. So far so good on those resolutions.

After kids were in bed, some great friends took me out for dessert. I felt so spoiled and loved. Thank you Kari, Camille, and McKenzie. (And Jenaca and Deanne would couldn't make it.) Hopefully I will get a picture of that night soon. McKenzie had someone take a picture with her phone. The young lady taking the picture was so funny. She said, "How old are you?" I hesitated just the slightest and then said, "Thirty-four." She said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were in your twenties or I wouldn't have asked." But there is nothing to be ashamed of. Thirty-four down, hopefully plenty more to go.

Here it is. Thanks McKenzie for sending me the pic.

Happy Birthday to me!!

Laser Tag, Baby

It's that time again! Both Maleen and I celebrated our birthday this last week. And as the dutiful readers of this fine publication already know, we celebrate with sheer, violent, all-American, brutal gladiatorial combat. (Of course, we prefer to keep our friends alive, so we just shoot them with lasers.)

Before we entered the arena, we had a brief discussion of rules (and whatnot) and there statements were made indicating that everything from second place down was up for grabs: Maleen's already got the number one slot wrapped up. So, did she deliver?

Here are the results:

Player	Rank	Kills	Deaths	K/D
Maleen "Ms. January" Cazier (#24)	2	62	31	2.00
Tyler "Raging Stallion" Cazier (#28)	3	52	29	1.79
Ron (#23)	5	41	33	1.24
Matt McEwen (#31)	6	41	35	1.17
Jared Uffenorder (#19)	7	35	13	2.69

Player	Rank	Kills	Deaths	K/D
Caleb Iverson (#06)	4	42	31	1.35
Tyler Iverson (#04)	8	35	35	1.00
Dan (#13)	10	30	50	0.60
Matt Hillery (#03)	12	17	19	0.89
Jeff Foster (#09) or Brett	14	7	17	0.41
William (#10)	15	13	49	0.27
Brett (#05) or Jeff Foster	16	3	19	0.16
Arthur (#16)	17	4	20	0.20

As it turns out Maleen wasn't #1. Well, that's because they dumped a few other players in there with us, which is also the reason we appear to have so few red players in relation to the green players. There's someone who's "training for a laser tag event," who was dumped in on our team. His score was impressive, but we don't count him because he's L33T.

That said, in our group the number one slot went to "Ms. January," who was kind enough to hand our butts to us.

Luckily, I'm married to her. If we're ever involved in repelling a violent attack, I'm handing my gun to her—I stand the best chance of survival if she's wielding the gun. This year I wasn't far off though...I came in 2nd in our group. Normally this would be the "First Loser" slot, but if we're up against Maleen, that's ok.

Thanks to all who participated this year. It was great to see some faces we've missed recently, like Hillery and the Rhino.

Here are the score cards, sorted only by team:

Just for your enjoyment, Maleen was reviewing these scorecards and said, "I never actually saw Brett." Then I rummaged through the scorecards to find hers and noted that she had killed Brett. She complained of a temperamental gun, this trip too, so I imagine Ms. January wildly clicking her laser trigger and on the other side of the arena Brett lights up and he goes, "Where'd that come from?"

Previous carnage that made the blog: 2012, 2009, 2008. (Just for the record, we've been playing since 2007. Maleen won ALL of these except one...because the gun was faulty.)