A Long Time Sneaking And A Birthday

Lucy: "Mom, I woke up at 6:10 in the morning, but it took me a really long time to sneak out(one hour)."

As you can see something was planned here in advance. Lucy and Deac woke up bright and early on a Sunday to decorate for Skipper's birthday and make her things before she woke up. Lucy was able to sneak out of the room without waking Kandus up too early and make her curious.

 Lucy made the sweet 16 birthday banner and Deac made her a giant ninja star.

Saturday night, the day before her birthday, we went out to celebrate. She chose dinner at JCW's, the new Spider-Man- Homecoming movie at Watergardens, and cupcakes from Alisha's afterwards. It was a really fun night together as a family.

I hope, just what she wanted. 

Sixteen

Locked Up -Celebrating Skipper

Lucy's Perspective: I remember one day, when Kandus got home from school, mom and dad took her into their room and talked to her about something bad that she did at school. I think the bad thing was that when me and mom took her to school she was screaming and chasing after mom and the car and wouldn't go to school. After mom and dad talked to her, dad brought her down stairs and made her stay in her room and she was in there for a really long time.
We were all watching Lord of the Rings down stairs too and dad was all comfy with a blanket on the couch. Mom went up stairs for a minute and Kandus kept on asking me to come in the room with her. She was making an Ariel picture to go on the ceiling and I remember liking it a lot. I was teasing her about Gollum, saying "MY PRECIOUUUS", and it would freak her out. I kept leaving her because I wanted to watch the movie. She was complaining and got mad at me so dad said I had to leave her in there alone.
After a while I went to the window to look at Jack outside and to my left I saw Kandus...OUTSIDE...OUT OF HER ROOM...GLARING AT ME LIKE A MEAN OLD DOG. I knew exactly what she was thinking. She was thinking, "Don't you dare tell mom and dad." So I watched her through the window for about 5 minutes deciding whether or not to tattle on her. I finally got the courage to tell dad. After all, I was his partner in crime. I timidly said to him, "Dad, I saw Kandus outside." Immediately I felt a blast of guilt go through my body. Kandus was my sister soul mate and I betrayed her! But at the same time, I felt like she deserved it and I was really interested to see what would happen. Right when I told dad, he threw off his blanket and went outside, half stomping half running...MARCH RUNNING! I remember following him and watching as Kandus let out a high pitched scream and ran only 3 steps before he easily caught her. Dad carried her inside and for the next while she was actually LOCKED in her room and the window that she snuck through was blocked. She was in her room for the rest of the evening making things and playing with her American Girl doll. That night when we went to bed she was not happy with me at all. 

Driving Permit

There she goes!!

In Preparation For My Birthday

When my mom asked for a recent picture of me for my birthday coming up, I realized that they were really sparse. It makes sense, I am usually the one behind the camera...

In fact, when I really thought about it, it had been a while since I had been involved in a dress up "occasion" like the kids and I used to do...I really miss that. I'm not going to lie, for a while I felt sad that I hadn't taken the time with them, at least being on the other end of the camera with them once in a while. When I mentioned it to the girls and told them that I couldn't find a recent picture besides a stupid duck face, they were all over the idea of dressing me up that very night. For my birthday.

I asked for a cool bird eye like Skipper did to Lucy a couple months ago, I thought it looked so cool. And for my short hair...I mentioned braids and that crazy hair was best. I could never make myself be serious all the time. Laughing is just way too fun. I ended up giving my mom a few pictures from a couple years ago and also this picture below.

I will be turning forty in a couple days. In case you were wondering, that's 280 in dog years.

Forty years old is monumental, right?...I may be getting older and hopefully wiser, but I definitely hope I will always hold on to my goofiness.

Chores For California

Kandus got invited to go to Disneyland (California) with Becky's family. She didn't have the money, so Dae and I were willing to let her do all the weeding in the back yard as a trade. It is not a small task by any means, but she took it on like a champ. She is so excited. Here she is...

Enjoying California

Makeup Mishap and A New President

Tonight was another one of those nights that I walked in the girl's bathroom to find them decorating each other in a really bad way. I mean, really bad. This time, I will call it a makeup mishap. Skippers mouth was a mix between a clown and a mess. I don't know who looked crazier...I must admit, I loved the bird look on Lucy that Skipper did, along with the Donald Trump motif next to the frowny face...very much Lucy. It seems Donald is the topic of conversation everywhere lately. At school, at home, everywhere. The kids really get into talking about him.

"Relax mom, I already know all the bad words...darn, booger, and Donald Trump."...(Netflix humor the kids have picked up)

By the way, we just very recently and regretfully accepted him as our president and heard his inauguration speech. We are all a bit concerned and apprehensive about the future in so many ways at the moment. Way back when I first saw him on a couple episodes of "The Apprentice", I decided then and there that he was not a nice person. I couldn't believe how mean and narcissistic this billionaire/businessman and celebrity was. He is someone I never in this world would have chosen or imagined as my president. But it is said and done. Donald Trump is our president now. 

The "Trump experiment" begins and our cause for hope widens. 

Skipper Gets Braces

Here she is proudly displaying them. She will have them for a year and a half.

Indiana

 Emily had been asking me and Lucy to come visit her in Indiana for a long time. We decided that it would be really fun to go visit her. So we worked hard for about a month or so earning money for the flight, food, and souvenirs. We counted down the days until it was time to go from the day we knew we were going. On the day it was finally time to go, Grandma Lu, Grandpa Bart, and Amie Jo came to pick us up and we made videos and took tons of pictures on the drive to the airport. We also took TONS on the plane ride.

When we saw Emily the first time in forever, we were all so happy to see her and I couldn't stop noticing how different she looked because she had been gone for so long. The first night there we all went out to eat at a place called Shake Shack or something. Pic on the left is Shake shack and pic on right is Big Belly Burger.

I remember we all laughed so hard the night at Shake Shack for a very long time. We couldn't stop making jokes and laughing at each other. In fact, grandma even threatened us that she would make us pay for our dinner because we were laughing so loud.(Whoops). Amie didn't want to be in any of the restaurant pictures by the way, that's why she isn't there.

This picture is before getting on the plane. 

This is a selfie Amie took with a goat filter on snapchat.

One of the days, we went on a train to go to Chicago. We also laughed A LOT there too. One thing I remember the most about the train ride is when we dared Emily to sit by a random boy and say hi. She was so scared, but she did it. It was hilarious. We were laughing so hard.

This is a picture of us just being weird on the train. Mostly just me and Lucy were being weird.

When we got to Chicago, this really nice girl that they knew named Angela helped us out with finding things to do and stayed with us that whole day. We went to the planetarium and we went to the Chicago bean, and saw some other things. This old guy on a wheelchair yelled at us to stop and was chasing us. That was really weird.

      This is a picture of the planetarium. 

                  This is at a restaurant where we had Chicago dogs.

            This is when we were driving to Michigan (I'm pretty sure)

                                These next ones are Lake Michigan.

                              These next are when we were in Chicago.

       This is the Albanese candy factory. It was made in Valparaiso, Indiana, Which is where they were living.

            

Kandus Turns 15

For Kandus's birthday this year, she wanted a surprise dinner with the family. We tried out a new place in Provo called the Black Sheep. After that we walked around Provo city a bit and explored, something the kids haven't seen much.

She wanted a chocolate beet cake with chocolate drizzle and fresh raspberries. It was GOOD.

I forgot to buy the dang candles...

She didn't mind at all though! One candle was enough.