Will it ever end?

We went camping with Derek's family this weekend, which was a joke! First of all Derek is already in pain, but wants to do something "fun" with the girls. Well, the girls were having a blast until Erin was stung in the eye by, we are going to say a bee because we don't know for sure. We didn't have any benadryl in our emergency kit; boy that tells you what kind of nurse I turned out to be. We did have some ice so I made her sit for a spell with some ice to her eye which she complained about endlessly. This picture is not too bad. The next morning, for church, it looked a lot worse! She looks like she's been in a knock out fight!

We took our motorcycles up with us and Derek wants so badly to ride and thought he might get away with riding the girl's bike a little, but I made him get off after I took this pathetic picture. He wasn't very happy with me as you can tell. (I made him smile in one for me).


Over all the girls did have a great time and
got very dirty! Derek slept most of the day Sunday and was still tired when we went to bed for the night. It may be a while before we venture out again.

Kids conversations

I overheard Morgan and Erin chatting in the back seat of the car a couple of days ago. Morgan was saying to Erin,"Respect. It has to mean something doesn't it?" It was funny hearing Erin try to explain it to her.
We were watching the women's water polo on tv during lunch and the girls were in awe because they don't touch the bottom of the pool while they play. Erin saw one of the girls go down and come back up and was saying "she got water in her nose!" I explained that they have learned to blow out their nose while they play so it doesn't get in their nose. Erin explained that she had to plug her nose whenever she goes under water. Morgan piped up "I can blow out my nose under water!" Erin excitedly said " Morgan can blow out her nose! She could go to the Olympics!" Boy, if that's all it takes to get to the Olympics, sign me up!

Three down, One to go!

Shannon is finally potty trained! Derek and I told her if she stayed clean and dry in her underwear for a week, we would take her to the zoo and she did it! I think Erin and Morgan are just as excited or more so than Shannon. (Lauren couldn't care less) But they have been great sisters in helping her along. They cheer her on when she has a success and help her get on the potty when she has to go and I can't get right to it! It was funny because while we were doing the "two steps forward-one step back" routine, we would bring up the zoo and Shannon's response was always " yeah, I can go see the bears and the lions and the zebras and .....". It would get frustrating because she had the idea in her head, but wasn't incorporating it. But now she is working on the night time stuff and she's made some headway. She wants to wear the underwear to bed, but she is still unpredictable. Maybe she's like Morgan was; wet when she wore the training pants, but managed to stay dry with underwear. I'm not sure I'm ready to try that yet. So hopefully we have only two more years of buying diapers. One can only hope!

Since Derek has been laid up for awhile, I've had a lot more to do and less help to do it. Well, I made lunch for everyone last Sunday along with mini vanilla pudding pies. But before the girls could eat their pies, Derek made them say 5 "great" things Mom does for them. They came up with the usual "she cooks for us, she buys us things.." not really what he was looking for so he urged the girls to really think of SOMETHING! Morgan got a big smile on her face and said "she teaches us the gospel" and sits back as though she just made the greatest comment. Derek said that's great now expound on that. Morgan looked at Derek confused at this reponse and said" But Dad that's all we can possibly know!" I almost had pudding coming out of my nose!

New cousins for the Kobe girls

May 1st, Lauren and I flew out to Omaha to visit the newest additions to the Kobe clan. Adrienne Jolene and Sophia Elise Smith are twins born April 22nd. They are very cute and very easy to tell apart. Adrienne is on the left and Sophia on the right and I bet you all can tell who is in the middle! I can't believe that Lauren was that little only 3 months earlier! Lauren did pretty well on the airplane ride out there. She was making friends with everyone especially the lady sitting next to us. At first Lauren wasn't sure whether to cry or laugh at her, but she quickly warmed up. We were in Omaha till the 6th and Lauren got very used to having Mom all to herself. Elise and Trevor had a dinner to go to that Saturday and took the twins with them. They dressed them up in dresses that were a little big still and then wanted to put on some head bands that were given to them by a friend. This friend made them and they were cute, but looked funny on the girls because the flowers stuck out so far from their heads so we put it on Lauren and took a picture. She reminds me of the queen ant from A Bug's Life! We also gave all the girls a bath the same day so we took their pics before their baths. Lauren was getting cream for 3 months and it shows. How cute! It was fun to see everyone, but we are glad to be home!

Salt Lake Marathon

Erin, with her cousin Kayla, ran in the kids 1k during the SLC Marathon. We thought we would be running 1 mile at first but I didn't look at the info very closely, so the girls didn't get to run to their full potential. Maybe in an upcoming 5k! Anyway, they ran with their moms and ran the whole way! They got to meet Elmo, even though Erin made sure I understood that Elmo wasn't real and that it was a person dressed up as Elmo. Leave it to Erin to keep you in the know! They got medals and a T shirt for running in the race. Erin was a little scared before the race because she expected something very different. She said she had pictured a field with grass and lines painted to show you where to run. She also requested that the Union Station, which is where we waited to start the race, could be quiet for a little while. She is a country girl all the way! She was also worried that she wouldn't know where to run if she got ahead of me. I informed her I would be right by her the whole time! She was sure she was going to win the race! Alison told me that Kayla thought the race only consisted of her, Erin, Alison and me! She told Alison that she had a chance of winning this thing! So cute!

Lauren's blessing day

Today Lauren was given her blessing. Derek did a wonderful job as expected; even though he forgot to take his pain meds this morning because we were rushing out the door. He was in a lot of pain and had to teach in Priesthood today too. The girls enjoyed playing with their cousins after church, in the backyard; it was such a beautiful day! We were all burnt on our arms; the girls on their faces too. We spent the whole day ,yesterday, in the backyard getting our garden ready for planting. It takes the first burn of the year for me to remember to lotion everyone up before going outside. Morgan found some grubs in the dirt and was naming them. The first one was named Hate and then she renamed it Derek. The second one was named Katie. So now we know how she feels about her parents. Shannon was playing kitty for Erin and Erin put a jump rope around her waist for a leash. Erin then decided she needed to go inside for a drink and tied her "kitty" to a tree in the yard until she came back outside, then they went for a "walk" around the yard. We just need to move up to Morgan so the girls can get a pet. It was nice finally getting out into the yard and working in the dirt.