{4 Years Old.....Oh my!}

I can't believe my baby is 4!! She is so grown up! I love everything about her. She is so smart and beautiful and happy. I love how she looks when she first wakes up with her hair all messy and pretty. I love her smile and her giggles. She is a good friend. She loves to make up songs that are silly. She loves to be in the water. She loves primary songs from church. She loves anything that is "baby" or that is "tiny", even the "tiny" toilets in kids bathrooms.

She loves her daddy the most. (sometimes hard for me to accept) She is perfect in every way!!

We had a little birthday party for her yesterday with a few friends from our neighborhood and she had so much fun. They splashed in a little pool and slid on a slip and slide. Party+H2O=SuperFantasticTotallyRadFun.

My talented neighbor/friend made the cute cupcakes and they were so delicious!

Jake was up late decorating our home:)

She was shy when we were singing to her.

I don't know what she wished for, but my wish is for her to stay 4 forever. :(

They grow up too fast and I don't think I like it one bit.

{My little graduate}

Breck and I had a fun year with our preschool group. 6 mom's from our neighborhood decided to take turns teaching preschool twice a week. We had 3 sweet little boys and girls in our group. It was free and fun and it took some work too. Emily, one of the moms, planned a cute little graduation for the kids last night. Thanks Emily!!

I had to hobble over to get some pics of my cutie pie. (I recently had surgery and I'm still recovering, but doing well)

Here are the 6 of them together. They all became such good friends. It was a good experience for us.

{Just in case you don't visit my photo blog....}

Email me at danawillis@gmail.com

This is how Jake jumps off a swing.

Am I old fashioned????

Yesterday was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the skies were blue. I opened my window to enjoy it and I looked down at our nice little park area behind our building and saw two teenage couples laying on each other kissing. I was shocked. I was totally shocked that they didn't seem to care if anyone was watching them out their windows. Ew.

I shut my blinds.

About an hour and a half later, they were still out there. I mean, really? Who are these kids?

Am I old fashioned? Should I be thinking,"Well, at least they are dressed and doing this in a place where things cannot get too heavy." NOPE.

I went outside. I opened my gate and tried to shoo them away with my hand and voice. I said,"go home".

They ignored me!

I then grabbed Jake and the whole family and we went running out with every ball we own and bats and started playing sports on Sunday about 4 feet away from one girl straddling her "man".

By the way, they were about 14 or so years old.

We were yelling and cheering and trying to be annoying.

Within a minute or so, the girls got off of their "men" and just sat there.

Jake even asked them questions,"Are you new to the neighborhood?" They just shook their heads and didn't say much more. They then moved over closer to the playground and just talked for the next hour.

I'm okay with talking!!! (even though I still wanted them to leave our innocent, clean family playground area)

FINALLY, I heard a "mother" yell out to her daughter that it was time to go.

Blech!

This "mother" was okay with her daughter and her friend laying on their boyfriends making out???

It makes me wonder what the "mother" and her friend she was visiting were doing......EW!

I know there are worse things out there, but seeing this makes me want to keep my children sheltered and safe from hearing, seeing, doing anything inappropriate. I'm already doing this, but I think I might do it until they are 30.

I have a feeling this won't be the last time these teens show up and straddle each other on my back lawn. (well, it pretty much is my backyard)

If I call the police next time, will they just laugh at me???(the police, I mean)

{She is full of color}

THIS VIDEO makes me happy when I watch it.

I love that she finds so much color and fun with the world around us. I wish I was more like her.

It's only a few minutes, go watch! It will make you giggle. It is three and a half minutes of creativity!

Here is her blog and I think everyone should follow it.

Logo, I like it.

If you would be so kind, grab the html code for my Logo Button under my logo on the right side of this blog and copy it and paste it under the "Add a Gadget" on your Layout page. Click "HTML/Javascript" and paste the code in the box and VOILA!

I would be so grateful! Thanks and have a wonderful day!

Smarty Pants

I was sitting at my computer, something I do way too often, and I looked over at my 3 year old, Breck. I saw that she was drawing on a piece of paper. I asked what she was drawing and she said, "Cinnamon Toast Crunch". The box of cereal was gone and was still sitting on the kitchen table. I walked over to see and found this:
"Wow!", I said. She would just keep looking at the box and then draw what she saw on the paper. So fascinating, kids. She is such a smart little girl.

By the way, she is left handed. Not sure how I feel about that. I keep trying to tell her to switch, oh well. Is it that bad?

She then started to erase everything she had written because she ran out of room on the paper. I told her to just get another piece. She said,"Don't worry, I won't get tired from erasing." Hahaha! Smart AND she thinks GREEN! Who could ask for more?!

Hooray!

I finally got a website up and going! I'm so excited to have it. It looks more professional than I thought it would:)

Go visit: www.danawillis.com

{Cheat Day CAFE}

Okay, my cute friend Melody started a great blog with yummy recipes on it!

She is very talented. Well, she is having a giveaway for her 100th post!

Go visit and enter and see the cute prize!

{Cheat Day Cafe}

Great Date!

Jake's boss has season tickets to the Utah Jazz. They often hand out tickets to the games. As nice as that is, we don't really care as much as some, to go to the games unless........they play the LA Lakers. I know there are so many people in Utah that for some odd reason, can't handle the Lakers. In fact, I feel that it has affected our ability to be better friends because of it. (not me, they have the problem) I don't mind the Jazz and I don't trash talk. I just enjoy my Lakers, that's all.

Jake's boss handed him two tickets to the Lakers vs. Jazz game on Feb. 10th

We had a lot of fun. I wasn't expecting a win, actually. I hoped, but the two "star" players were out with an injury.

Well, let's just say, they aren't the only star players on the team:)

I was so proud of them.

LAL 96 Jazz 81

If anyone wants to get in my face and be a huge jerk about it, I dare you. :)

Some know what happens when an immature(not saying they all are) Jazz fan shoves stuff in front of my face. Haha! The good 'ol days, huh? I hope I've grown up since then.....

Anyway, watching them always makes me miss my Dad, who used to watch the games with me as a youth. We even had a family cheer when watching.

Needless to say, it was a great date with Jake.

Two days later we got to go to the LDS Conference Center and watch my baby brother play the drums with BYU's Synthesis. It was a great concert! Jay did an awesome job. I wish I could play the drums like him.

Finally.

I finally finished reading "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society". I'm a weird reader. I don't mind reading. I like it, sometimes. I can't just pick up any book and read it from cover to cover like some can. I also definitely cannot read it through the night like some can. I value sleep way too much. Anyway, the book really has to grab me in the first few chapters or I'm done. Am I a book snob? I don't know. I don't think I am.
Maybe I am. I am a pickle snob. I will only eat certain pickles. All others are nasty.
The "Potato Peel" book was cutely written and entertaining. It was, however, a slow beginning for me. It took me a while to get into it. The 2nd half is what got me reading almost daily:)

Now on to another book: The Hunger Games

By the way, Jake said,"Did you get that hunger book yet? What kind of diet is it about? Is it any good?" Hahahahaha!
I guess that is the author's fault for naming it that title.

I've heard it is really good......we'll see. :)

Someone needed a haircut.

Christmas in CA

This year we decided to go celebrate Christmas at Grandma's in California. We were so excited to go see family and be amongst the warmer temperatures too. Christmas Eve we gather to read from the scripture's about the story of Jesus' birth. My Mom was the donkey this year and Jonah and Breck were Joseph and Mary. Haha. These are the "costume's" we use from the bathroom and closets.



My brother Jeff came from Michigan to have Christmas at home.

Each year we also read a story form Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book. It is read by my little brother Jay since the main character in the story is called "Jay Bees Daws".

Jeff and Trent hanging out.

My family has the tradition of photographing the kids on the stairs Christmas morning before they go see if they got anything for Christmas:) My Dad used to always say,"Kids, Santa didn't come." We always just laughed and ran past him to see our gifts in the living room. He was a joker, my Dad.

Here are our kids, bed head and all.

Here is our family picture on Christmas Day at my Mom's.

Breck got a few little things that she was so happy to have. I love her little face below.

We finally got the boys a Wii this year and it has been fun to have. Jake and I now compete against each other. Look at Gavin's face. He is my child I have to really be careful with video games. He loves to play them too much.

All of my siblings came over for lunch and to open presents from each other. I had to shoot a couple of pics while we there together. Here are my two beautiful sisters below.

The 3 sister's always have to take a pic together:)

Jonah and I goofing off on the trampoline with my camera and dusk.

Superman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Creative People

I have not been very good about updating my family blog lately. I've been so busy I guess. We are good though. Excited for Christmas to come!

For now, I wanted to share a funny video that was made a while back from a friend I know. He does all sorts of things and is really creative. He is actually really good friends with my brother and that is how I know him.

He makes funny videos for his cute wifey too.

I thought I'd post this so you can enjoy a little laugh. I did. Listen to his lyrics, they are deep:) Hahahaha. I only wish I could have this much fun and make silly videos that are actually good. My favorite part is when there is the harmonizing happening with sock puppet. Hilarious.

Watching this made me realize I need to be nice to the dummy's out there.

;)

The Halloween Costumes-2009

This year, I wanted us to go trick-or-treating as a family.  I am tired of having either Jake or I at home handing out the candy and missing all of the fun.

Instead, we locked the doors, turned off any Halloween lights so nobody would be knocking and wondering.

It was so much fun!  We walked around with our kids who were running from house to house.  At one point, Breck turned to me and said,"Mom, I am having so much fun!"

The only downfall with doing Halloween this way was the huge bucket of candy we had left over since we only had maybe 10 people come to our door since we were gone for the rest.  Oh well, I threw it away!!!!!!!  I did eat a few before though:)

PS- In case you were wondering: Gavin=Soccer player(2nd year in a row)

Jonah= Smarty pants

Breck=Medieval princess

Life is Better

Life is better when you have good tunes to listen to. I love, love, love music. It runs in the family. My family is musical. My family could have been more musical had we all kept up with our instruments we were learning as kids. Don't get me wrong, a couple of my brother's still play and my youngest brother, Jay, is at BYU on a drum scholarship and is majoring in music.
My sister, Melinda, can play the piano quite well still. Robyn can sing until no end, really, she does that. Hahahaha! I miss it and the whistling too.
I guess I'm talking about me. I learned to play the piano as a kid and probably could have been really good. I then learned the violin and played up through high school, but alas, I quit that too.
I thought soccer was a better route. Silly me!
My Dad played the saxophone and clarinet and my Mom, of course is a piano whiz. She is amazingly talented with music. She is even writing songs now and might be publishing some of them soon....... My parents used to have a band and they would go play for different parties and wedding receptions.
Me? I love to play my stereo, and really loud too.
I love the feelings music give me. I love how music creates memories and brings back memories.
I have said before that Jamiroquai is my favorite music group. They still are. I love them. I love their funky sound and I love that they use real instruments instead of electronic randomness on a keyboard for the whole band.
I love to bounce to Hip-Hop, but only certain Hip-Hop.
I enjoy Q-Tip, yes that is his rap name. Q-Tip sometimes does not use the best language in his music, but I really like his style and sometimes I can find the "CLEAN" version of his songs.
I posted a video of him featuring Norah Jones. Random duo, I know. But I like it.
Enjoy!






Now, go listen to your own tunes while I enjoy mine:)

October=Pumpkins and Stuff

It is October!  Last week the kids and I went to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point with my friend Lori and her two girls.

We had a lot of fun.  There were many things for the kids to do, which is why I wonder why they charge adults to come in and watch.  

Here are some pics of our day.

Pumpkin Pyramid

Brothers.

Huge bounce pillows for jumping.

Huge rocking chair.  Breck with Naomi and Leilani.

Really cool bikes to ride.  I did ride those!

Huge monster thingy to walk through.  Apparently at night they add freaky looking people to scare you.

The boys fighting the monster's uvula.(sp?)

Me in the Cinderella carraige.  

Princess Breck.  They had an area for little girls to play and dress up and ride on the carraige.  It was a very pink place to be that day:)