First Day of First Grade!!

My Bella girl is a first grader today!

And the ladies know it's all about the outfit...

Let's start with the FABULOUS shoes: Twinkle Toes

TV does such a great job of advertising...

she has been asking for these shoes for MONTHS!

Then we have the hand stitched yellow tee with ruffled collar...

And her skinny jean bermuda shorts...

(can't see in this picture)

When choosing a backpack Bella looked right over the princesses

and hello kitties...and chose:

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS*

(*side note: did I ever tell you about the time she said she wanted to marry spongebob and have little sponge babies? ew. maybe it's time for the talk about the birds and the bees. haha)

Today was her BFF's first day of school too.

Except that she is moving in a couple weeks so she won't

be attending Bartlett Elementary.

So sad.

George wants to go to school too. All day he has been asking, "Where's Bella?"

She is riding the bus and I was watching her to make

sure she got on okay and forgot to snap a pic.

Oh well.

I am loving the nice quiet day but gotta admit I'm having some anxiety about her eating lunch at school. And getting back home on the bus. And is her teacher kind? And will she make friends? And...And...And...

Time to go do some yoga.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Zhu Zhu Pets, But Were Afraid to Ask.

You know the zhu zhu pet craze of late 2009? (pronounced, of course, zoo zoo)

We didn't go crazy but each of our children received a zhu zhu pet from Santa.

Of course after 3 weeks the zhu zhu pets were stashed in a dark bedroom corner.

Until now!

We have revived interest in zhu zhus! {yay?}

And why exactly am I blogging about these darn things?

Aside from the fact that they are sort of funny...

Kung Zhu!

These are the fighting zhu zhu pets.

And Bella wanted to spend her allowance on one.

A "good guy" of course.

Here were some questions for her:

Me: So how are these different from your other zhu zhu pets?

Bella: They have a hurt eye.

Me: You need a new one because of the eye? I could take a marker and mark up one of the ones you have...

Bella: {exasperated tone} Mom, they got it from FIGHTING!

Me: How do you know if you got a good guy?

Bella: {losing interest in my questions} they are red and the bad guys are blue.

BUT {renewed interest in conversation} Shayla's zhu zhu pet was a good guy but it turned bad.

Me: ??

Bella: My Kan Zhu's name is

Cotton Candy Bruise Monster.

'nuff said.

Nature! And temps below 100...

Camping at Duck Creek Utah 2010

Bret forgot which way the tent went...haha

Oh now he got it. Whew!

The ultimate tent decorator...Lizzy Lou Hoo

We stopped by the Ice Caves...George, Emily, and Bret loved it!

At the top...these weenies didn't wanna go down. Except for this guy Hooray! Bret is the only non-weenie in the bunch.

Until George stepped up his game and joined him.

The next day we went to the Mammoth Caves. Significantly scarier than the ice cave...very dark and lots of spots where you have to army crawl. No thank you! Emily tried and tried to convince Bella to go with her. Lizzy refused. I refused. Bret and George went with her into a dark, bat infested cave but she wanted to explore ALL the caves. :)

Back at camp: July 6th was Bret's birthday and I made him an AWESOME

dutch oven birthday cake....

It tasted WAY better than it looked...

We ate it community style.

Georgie chillin in his chair by the fire.

Bella in a s'mores coma. HAHA!

Another successful family camping trip!

The Lees Love You.

Trapped!

Sunday mornings are not my favorite.

They are hectic and rushed.

No amount of planning the day before makes it easier.

The opposition really works on me....

Which brings me to last Sunday morning the 11th:

Bret had just hopped out of the shower and I came in to grab something, closing the door behind me. When I went to leave--the handle turned but nothing happened.

Not locked.

Not opening.

Broken.

To sum it up: Bret and I, at 8am (before 9am church)

were TRAPPED in our bathroom!

Luckily my mother was there to help get the 4 children ready for church (might have been my plan all along, hehe)...as Bret took the handle

to the door off and still couldn't get it open,

then pried the pins out of the hinges and still couldn't get it.

1 hour and 45 sweaty minutes later (did I mention Bret takes 1000 degree showers and our bathroom was a sauna??) we were FREE! And very late for church.

Actually I was quite productive, organizing our closet and cleaning the fan which was, by the way, super disgusting.

At one point my mother said, "stand back from the door and sit over by the tub" and we obliged thinking she was going to kick in the door but instead we saw the lens of her camera and she got this shot:

Was definitely not "Easy Like Sunday Morning"

Where's my camera?

The cord to the camera has been found,

and pictures have been uploaded to the computer!

Yay!

So I was sorting through these little picture gems

and came across a bunch like these:

This girl loves to photograph herself!

I guess because she can immediately look at the picture...

Remember when we used to take pictures and had to wait to see them until they were developed? And you would have like 10 rolls of film to be developed and some were a total mystery? These kids will never know what that was like.

Have a fabulous day!

Summah!

My tan is well under way.

Bella completed kindergarten.

My step daughters are here.

Summer is officially ON!

And so is the blog. Many random entries to come...

Rule Number One as Stated by Bella Lee

Bella is watching you!

In case you were wondering...

Bella pointed out a VERY important rule in life.

She says: (and I quote)

"If you lay down in the street, and get run over by a car:

(pause) (point finger) BAD CHOICE!!"

Stay tuned for more Bella revelations....

Okay I Get The Hint...

Will and Bella on the Kindergarten playground.

This weekend we watched Will Scott while his parents went to Arizona.

The Scotts are good friends of ours and Will is in Kindergarten with Bella.

Friday night we were at our fave place...Costco.

We had a fabulous time, as always. At one point we stopped at an example station and as we furiously grabbed at the burrito/nugget/sausage Will told the lady:

"This is not my family. I'm a Scott."

Then at the checkout Will told the gal behind the cash register:

"I'm not a Lee. This isn't my family."

And again when we were getting our receipt checked at the exit Will said:

"I'm not in this family. It's not mine."

I guess we won't be adopting Will anytime soon. :)

Happy Valentines Day!!

I hope everyone is doing well this fine February.

(Ack! February!)

Here we are: Kids are getting sooooo big!

We're a pretty cute bunch, don't ya think?

Bella on Kings of Leon

The song "Use Somebody" came on the radio in the car the other day. Bella: Oh this is the guy with the sad voice. He must be really sad. Me: Yeah, he does sound kinda sad. Bella: Why does he need to use somebody? Is he lonely? It was really funny and a little bit sweet... ************ One more Bella-ism. Our ward went to 9:00. I'm not going to pretend like it's easy...it definitely takes some getting used to!! 15 minutes into church last Sunday Bella announced, (loud enough for the few pews in front of us to hear) Mom I wanna go home and take a nap!! And our friend Darlene turned around and said, "me too Bella!" Again probably funnier when you are there... Hope everyone's 2010 has started off with fabulous-ness!