Friday, November 14, 2008

School pictures

We finally got the kids school pictures back. They missed the first pictures because I was in Vegas for them and I am too crazy to let them do it with out me there. By the way, I'm not the only Mom who stands over the computer and tells them if it is a natural smile or not. At our school, that is the norm for lots of us. Still a little OCD, I know. All in all they turned out great, except for Blake's background was supposed to be the same as the girls, and I hate the dum arm crossing thing. It was that or hunched over your knees, which looked even more lame. I tried to let them do it with out their arms folded but the lady said, nope, that was the pose. Oh well, they look great!
Lex 10yrs. Fourth Grade


Blake 8yrs. Third Grade
Mallory 6yrs. Kindergarten




Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Why me............

Yep, you see it right. Brittan has a new do. It is quite possibly the worst child haircut I have ever seen, and I've fixed a lot over the years being a hairdresser and all. This one takes the cake though. My two older girls have done it several times to themselves. Alexa has cut her own hair at least 5 or six times, but never to where anyone could notice, a little snip here, a little snip there and then I would find it when I went to do her hair the next day. Mallory gave herself a pretty bad haircut two years ago, but it was totally still do-able and no one noticed unless they saw her at night after a bath. Both girls were around 4 to 6 in their haircutting years. Brittan is only two! The fact that she maneuvered the scissors so well around her ear, I'm surprised she still has one! The top 3 inches back is about a half an inch. The side has parts that show skin! It is so bad! We were having a quiet Friday night. Blake and Lex were at my friend Christy's house spending the night. Todd was changing the break pads on my car and Mally and I were watching Kit Kitridge in the family room while Brittan was on my bed watching a movie. She does this all the time and never gets into things. It had been a while since I heard her singing along to her princess movie so I called out to her and heard a very distant answer. I told her to come out and eat her "yoggies" (her orange cream yogurt). She came around the corner and sat just barely inside the kitchen, very far away from us. I looked at her and then looked harder. As I called her over and saw the chunks of hair covering her jammies, I just screamed. She was hysterically crying instantly saying "I'm sorry Mom, I'm sorry Mom". Mallory was crying, so was I. It wasn't a pretty scene. I put her on my bed and left her in there until Todd got home. I couldn't really assess the situation yet. When he got home, we went in. Hair EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!! So sad. I told her it was hideous and that she looked like a boy. Probably mean, I know, but I thought I was being pretty calm at this point. She just cried and cried. She didn't stop until she fell asleep. The next morning I was hoping it was a bad dream, it wasn't. It was even more scary with a little bed head mixed in. It has taken me several days to take the pictures. I just couldn't do it right away. I was too sad. Now, everywhere we go everyone wants to see it. Word travels fast in our small community, and the gasps, the "oh Allison's", and the laughing my friends have bestowed upon me tells me how bad and funny it is. Here is my mullet, punk, W.T. kid...........
Right behind the ear is the worst, oh and on the very top, oh and I guess everywhere is pretty sick too. This wet pic shows just how many cuts there were, tons!
The look on her face says it all. She new we weren't taking happy cute pictures. It might not have helped the million times I said how sick it was. She apologized to me many, many times on Saturday. Especially when I was showing someone her beautiful work.
So now we are back to this. Baby headbands for the next two years. Oh, I also cut the back of her hair off. It helps a tiny bit with the mullet look.
I guess we still love her.
If I didn't do every hair accessory imaginable, I would not know what to do. Megan rushed tons of crochet headbands over and luckily I still have tons of lycra ones. Deb's fabric bands are really cute on her too. Thank goodness! I guess there are a trillion things worse in the world and in the big picture this is really quite funny. I do still think silly, bald girl is adorable!





Monday, November 10, 2008

Happy Halloween!!

We love Halloween! We pick costumes fairly early, (doesn't mean I have them ready early), but we decide what they will all be as soon as possible. I say "we", but I really mean that I talk all my kids into their costumes each year. Maybe someday I will give up all control and actually let Blake be the Star Wars guy he has wanted to be for years. Pretty sad, I know. The girls are usually pretty easy, and Blake really did pick this costume ( out of the 3 choices I gave him) so he felt great about it :). I made Lexa and Mallory's costumes, ordered Blakes and Brittans was a snap! Still, I am very glad it is over! After getting them all ready for 3 events in a row, I was done!!! Thanks to our personal make-up artist, Joc, the girls were fab, and she even does gladiator make-up! I am infamous for a billion props so the girls carried cool feather brooms, cauldrons, and they each had a pet spider, Candycorn and Peppermint! Brittan did not like anyone putting candy in her bucket, so that made for an interesting night. Maybe she'll get the concept next year. We had a blast and here are a few thousand pics to prove it!!
Lex was such a pretty witch. Can witches be pretty? I loved the spider earrings I made her!
Blake had no problem pulling off the tough guy look!
Cute little Mally
Britty was a funny little kitty. She was mistaken for Minnie Mouse more than once because I made her ears so ginormous!

After the school parade.
Mallory loved her vampire teeth.
Super Girl Gracie and Mally the Witch.
Brittan twirled and twirled all day in her "dancey dancey".
Lex at her class party.

Blake and his friend Roni looked like they planned their costumes to match!
At the school carnival the night before Halloween.
Lex and her friend Madison
The pouring rain was horrible on carnival night!
Lex and Emi, so cute at the ward party.
And the cool boys!
The best treat ever!

So amazed with her good fortune!
All the treats at the party were so fun.
I'm looking forward to the year long break until next Halloween!




















Saturday Morning Fun

One Saturday morning, I was woken up to some seriously screaming and laughing kids! It was the first day of cold weather, sort of, and they were all bundled up like they were at the North Pole! I guess a science enthusiast would half to explain to me the whole static hair thing. I think it was a combo of the tramp and the crazy windy weather! They were having so much fun!
Britty and Faith
The whole gang.
Britty mid air!
Loving the hair!






Double Digits!!

Lex hit the big 10 this year. We basically did a repeat of Mally's birthday and went to the movies to see High School Musical 3, and the whole pizza thing too. These pics are from her actual birthday, October 11. We went to the mall to have Joc do our make-up. Well really mine, but Joc said she would to Alexa's for fun. Here she is getting her presents from her family.
A Nintendo DS from Mom and Dad. (Do you love Mallory's crimped hair?)
And no folks, this is not a joke. She has wanted a Swiffer Wet Jet for forever!!!!!!!! Every time we are in Target she begs for one. I always say no and thought she would really die to get one on her birthday. ( Although this was not the original plan, I just didn't want one!) So this was Mallory's gift to her and she was so happy! By the way, she has used it regularly!

Brittan gave her a Webkinz pug and a huge stack of her favorite underwear from LTOO. This was the best gift ever for Brittan to give, as she just started wearing her own undies a month earlier!
Lex and Faith after getting their make-up done, thanks Joc! We did get a few waitresses talking about them when we went to Chillis for dinner. I'm sure they thought I was crazy for letting such young girls wear full, and I mean full cause Joc is very thorough, make-up! Oh well, they must not have any cool aunts! They do look way too old, scary!
We did Alexa's friend/movie party on October 25th. So she kinda got a month long of birthday celebrations! How fun! We love you Lex and we would like you to please stay right here at 10!




Happy Birthday Mallory!

Sometimes it is hard to think of Mallory as only six! She seems more like 16 a lot of the time. We had about 24 of her friends to see the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua. It was really cute and the perfect movie to keep all of those kids entertained. After the movie we went to Round Table to eat and open presents. Her dreams came true, she got a pet. With my permission, of course, my friend Sheridi and her girls Mallory, Kelsey and Kendal, got my Mallory a hermit crab. They know of my true desire to not have any pets, but they sure feel sorry for my kids! So I guess a hermit crab is the way to go cause we hardly know it is here! Mallory named it Ruby. My other kids feel jipped that Mallory being the 3rd oldest got the first pet, oh well. Here she is, so excited to get Ruby! Some of our party guests.
Megan gave Mallory 20, one dollar bills. She actually forgot about Ruby for a while and this became the coolest gift ever!
Jackpot!!
And now, squeezing Megan to death!
Mally's birthday was lots of fun. We were happy to celebrate her six, most entertaining, years of life!! We love you Mallory!





Friday, November 7, 2008

So if you think if you can Dance, Dance, Dance!!

We are obsessed with this show at our house! We have watched it since the very first season and we still give Mallory a hard time for adding the "IFs" in the title of the show. Season one, she was only 3 years old, so we have been teasing her for a while now. We try and get everyone we know to watch it each season as if we are solely reasponsible for the ratings. We have held many a "watching parties". The kids learn there favorite dances and do them over and over. (Blake doing Travis' part, (season 3), in the final four "Sexy Back" dance was priceless!) We have even met Nick Lazarinni, the winner of season one! We love this show! This was our second year going to the tour and it did not dissapoint! We got to go with our adopted fam, the Sinclairs. We love them almost as much as the show, just kidding, we love them 100 times more. We started the night by going to a yummy dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and then we were off to Oakland! This pic was before the show as we sat with anticipation, waiting to see if they would do our favorite dances. And they did, every single one of them! Here are Mally, Makenzie and Lex...
I was so happy to see my "Boo" dance in person. Joshua and Katie were my favs from the beginning, but by the third show when they did the samba to Baila Baila, I was hooked! I loved every dance they did. They never got it wrong! One fav for sure was Bollywood, so good!

They made us wait until almost the very end for the briefcase dance. It was worth the wait! Chelsea and Mark were amazing in this!
Almost the whole gang!Mallory was so excited to be here. She kept saying, "Oh my gosh, I bet it is so late right now!", and when Kherington did her solo she yelled out, "This place is on fire!". But she almost lost it when Mark and Courtney Gerianno, (as she says it), did The Garden. It was her very favorite dance. She has watched it over and over as we can't seem to erase them from our tivo! Her dreams came true when this music started, she just started screaming!
We had such a fun night, even if we missed getting cheesecake to go by 5 min.! We will most likely be counting down the days until next may when So If You Think If You Can Dance starts again!





Dress Party!

This Monday, Nov. 10th, I am having my dress party. For all those interested you may call for info or directions. Hours are 10am-1pm! Come early for the best selections on these dresses priced $20-37.00!!!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Seriously?

Here is the conversation Mallory and I had today while I did her hair.......
Mally: "Mom, do you know what I do mostly everyday at recess?"
Allison: "No, what?"
Mally: "I spin around on the bars. I hold a class for it, three people come."
Allison: " Really, who comes?"
Mally: "Well Gracie, but she's almost a teacher like me, she just needs a little more work, and J.C. comes, and Allison (a girl in her class), and Sydney comes too. Gracie is almost as good as me so that's why she's almost a teacher."
She was completely serious. Where does she come from?

How Exciting!

I'm a Esme! I found out through TwilightersAnonymous.com. Which Twilight Female Are You? Take the quiz and find out!
Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!


Thanks Andrea!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Year of A Million Dreams!!!

This is the picture that was taken right after we won. At this point we didn't really know how cool our prize was. We just thought , neat, a dinner at Nemo. So let me back track to how we won. We were on the Monsters Inc. ride in Disney California. When we got off there were 4 people standing there waiting for us. They first started talking to Brittan, asking how old she was and if she was having fun. Then they asked if I was her Mom and if I had any photo I.D. with me. I said I did and they told me that we won a really cool prize and that they needed us to follow them to their office. The whole way they were saying things like, "this is huge, you guys are really lucky". We Got into the office and William and Jeri (our two prize deliverers) said "how should we tell them, let's act it out!". So William starts saying things like "I can't find my Dad" and Jeri says "Ok Fabio, I'll help you". Of course they were acting out Nemo and they told us that we won a special dinner at the finding Nemo ride once the Disney parks were closed! We were excited and a little shocked. The kids didn't really know what was going on. We were told that we would start with a private meeting at Turtle Talk with Crush, which is something my kids love! So I had to fill out all kinds of paperwork. Even if I would have not accepted the prize I would have had to fill stuff out. The papers were release forms for the chance of them using any photos from the event and such. When I was done they told me that the value was $500 and I thought , Wow!, I had never had a $500 dollar dinner before! (more on this $ later). So they asked if anyone has any food allergies and if the kids had any major dislikes and Alexa speaks up and says "Well I like steak". Everyone started cracking up. So I asked how they chose us and it is pretty amazing! In the three park areas, Disneyland, California and Downtown Disney, there are 8,000 locations that a third party outside of Disney chooses from. So on this day they choose Monsters Inc. car 5, row 3, seat 1, at 10:21, which was Brittan's seat!!!!!! Of all the luck! We were also given the Disney Dream Fast Pass necklaces to use during our trip! We were sent on our way with the instructions to meet at City Hall in Disneyland at 7:15pm. So the rest of the day we went on ride after ride, giving Brittan a nap and just being excited about our night ahead.
This was the big moment. I guess after they took this picture, it went into many hands because when we meat at City Hall, they knew us each by name! We meat Shannon and Wade (the big "kid") and they took us over to California which closed at 6pm, so we were the only ones there!
This is Wade chatting it up with the big winner! Each time someone asked Brittan "Are you the winner?", she threw her hands up in the air and said "I'm a princess!". She fell into her winning role nicely. They weren't quite ready for us to start so the kids got to play and dance all over while photographers followed them. Some of these pics are mine, some are the professional ones they gave to us on a CD! There was 103 professional pictures on it!
Posing with Wade and Shannon.
The photographers had us do some of the typical pictures that they take when you walk into the parks and the photographers always try and stop you.
Checking out the Halloween displays.
The lights were so cool, I think it makes the pictures even more fun!
This was the sign up in front of the Animation Station.
It read - Disneyland Resort Would Like to Welcome The Marker Family 2008 Diney Dreams Giveaway!
On our way in they asked us if we had ever been in the Animation Station before. When I told them yes , they said good then you know what it normally looks like.Here we are on our way in. The looks on our faces say it all!
Even Brittan could tell it was so cool!
This is what the inside looked like. The big thing in the center was a giant balloon structure that looked like something in the ocean. They had it set up like a lounge. Little tables that were lit underneath had gorgeous floral center pieces on them. Big strings of white balloons were everywhere! As we came in they told us to sit and relax for a while, enjoying the horsd'oeuvres.
Brittan loved the balloons. In the back you can see a waitress (there were several) giving us the yummiest food.
Oops! Same picture. They served us peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches, chicken skewers and watermelon shooters. The peanut butter and jelly fish were so cute. The heads were sandwiches with blueberry eyes and the tentacles were twizzlers.
Wade was so nice to the kids. He taught Blake the "lawnmower". Blake is happy to demonstrate next time you see him!
Mallory of course had 500 stories to tell to everyone.
After a while they asked if we would like to do all of the activities in the Animation Station. My kids are very familiar with this place so they love them all! Here they are looking at this amazing Toy Story display that comes to life.
Wade and Lex. I'm sad there is not a good picture of the girl that was assigned to us too. Her name was Katy and the girls loved her! They thought it was so cool that she taught them some phrases in French!
Here we are down in Belle's library where you can find out which Disney character you are. I was Lady from Lady and the Tramp. Brittan pushed any button she wanted and it turned out she was Maleficent, the mean queen from Sleeping Beauty! Too funny.
Blake was so excited because he was Captain Hook! After this we went to Ursula's Grotto where she steals your voice and you can record a Disney song or a part of a movie, then they play it back for you. I didn't even realize that they were just trying to get us out of the room where we first came in because they needed to get our next surprise in.
When we came back in this is who we found! Brittan was freaking out! They did a whole skit for us about how we need to help look for Marlin's son. The Dory lady was hilarious!
Brittan kept screaming "Hi Nemo, Hi" not realizing that it was Marlin, not Nemo yet.
They lead us over to do our session with Crush.
Here they are asking Brittan to ask Crush if he knows where Nemo is. Our talk with Crush was really fun. Brittan kept wanting to talk on the microphone. Crush was super nice and let all the kids ask anything they wanted.
After we came out, Marlin and Dory were there again waiting to take us to our next stop. We walked out of the Animation station and we freaked out again!
Me freaking out! Oh, there were several people who were there just watching our every move. They just stood back and watched. I am assuming it is the people who planned this event. So I have no idea who these two are behind me!
That is Katy directly behind Alexa.
We walked out to this! A "blue" carpet event! (everything ocean themed) This was the pathway to our car that awaited us to drive us over to Disneyland.
This is very hard to see, but Brittan is staring straight up looking at the "seaweed"guys on stilts. They are the same ones for the parade! They were just dancing and moving around, guiding us to our car!
Dory telling the kids to get in the Disneyland Hybrid Yukon. They even had a car seat for Brittan. As we drove through California, they told us that we were getting to do what very few people get to do, drive in the parks! We went out a California gate and into a back Disneyland gate. The kids thought it was so cool to see the behind the scenes stuff like a elephant from the Jungle Cruise and lots of cars from the rides and where they do the fireworks! We drove into the gate by Small World and then over to the side of The Matterhorn and parked. We were told to walk over to the Nemo ride and walk up the stairs to the Monorail. This was our reaction there......
Mallory, the first one up there to see Mickey and Minnie waiting for us!
Brittan took forever to climb up the stairs! She saw Mickey and Minnie from pretty far away and then she screamed every step she took! She ran into their waiting arms.
All of the kids could feel the magic in the air. By this point we all knew this was no $500 dinner!
Mickey and Mally looking out into the logoon where the Finding Nemo Subs are.
The three of them could not get enough of each other! Brittan kept telling Minnie, "I love your lips", because she had lipstick on.
We had a 3 piece band there playing for us all night. Mickey and Minnie danced with us for about a half an hour!
Even Blake could not resist Mickey and Minnie's dancing!
All of us before they had to go.
At this piont they asked us to take our seats at our gorgous table overlooking the lagoon.
This was so pretty!
Each of us had our own waitor! They came and sat this plate in front of us and I thought , oh know, how will I get the kids to eat sushi?
This is our chef and he came out ot tell us that it was frushi. Every thing was made out of white rice and fruit!
Blake didn't like it very much.
Alexa was a good sport and tried everything!
It really did look like sushi!
Brittan was in heaven just playing with her plate.
The girls were in awe of our cool party!
Britty loved her big chair.
The wators gave us anything we wanted!
This was our amazing dinner! It was filet mignon over tiny pasta balls that looked like bubbles. On the side of the plate was "clown fish " raviolis with a blue "water" creamsauce. It all tasted so yummy! Brittan and Mallory had chicken strips instead of the filet mignon.
These guys were our musicians. They played all kinds of music but it all sounded very tropical because of the instuments! When we first got up there they were playing Mickey Mouse Club music to dance with Mickey and Minnie.
They interacted with the kids singing directly to and with them.
They even made fish faces with them!
Our beautiful center pieces, there were 8 of them along the table.
The Nemo ride right below us. The "snow" like dots you see were bubbles that they had going all around our party.
Then Marlin and Dory were back for another skit. Over the sound system we hear "Dad, Dad, I',m right here!" Down in the logoon was Nemo, (or a lady sitting in a boat dressed like the other two holding Nemo). Marlin and Dory got us to follow them down the stairs to get on the submarine ride to finally "Find Nemo"!
When we got off the ride, there was all three of them together, Nemo, Dory and Marlin.
Brittan was so happy to see Nemo.
We did some more dancing and singing down at the last party.
What you see here is truly unbelievable! Thse guys are the desert chefs, I am assuming because we never got tot meet them. I think this picture must have been taken while we were on the submarine ride. But what you see here looks like a sculpture! I really though it was when we got off the ride, but nope, this was out desert!
This is the close up. Every thing you see here is chocolate! Mallory and Lexa's even had little birthday cakes because we told them that Mally's birthday was Thursday, and Lexa's was in three weeks!
Everyone sang them Happy Birthday!
Mally bitting off Nemo's tail!
Look how huge they are!
This was a night we will never forget. The only downfall was that Todd wasn't there with us. We couldn't believe how fancy it was and how special we felt! Everyone was so nice to us, meeting our every need. I can't belive this was all for just us! We will always hold a special place in our hearts for Disney's Dream Squad!It was amazing!!!
The next day we were told to pick up our photo CD at City Hall. The guy that came out to give it to us said that his dinner had never been done before and would never be done again. It really was a one in a million chance! He said that they have spent months and months in preparation for this and they sit with such anticipation as to who will be chosen for the prize. He said it would have been a very different dinner if it was a young couple chosen or a family reunion. He said the whole office had been takling all morning about how perfect our family was for this occasion. He said that they have done other "character" prizes before when the family and kids don't interact with the characters at all and it is very akward! They thought the kids were great and it was fun to hear that they loved us as much as we loved them!
Oh, and about the $ , a little bird along the way said that they had no idea where the $500 amount comes from because the budget for this party was $20,000!!!!!!!!! I about died! It was the best party ever!