Momma Llama's 57th Birthday

Hard to believe my Mom would be 57 this year- oh how I wish she were here.

We've missed a lot of fun years- but I am thankful for GREAT memories!

These pictures are a random compilation of her younger years, but they are so fun, so I thought they would be fun to share.I think of my Mom multiple times everyday- often it is while I am doing "motherly" things like laundry, dishes, making dinner, or reading stories.

I wish I could tell her how grateful I was for her and for all she did and the sacrifices she made in behalf of her children. Sometimes you don't realize how much someone is doing for you when you are young. Now that I am the Mom, I know how much work it is-- and I don't even have an "outside" job or college courses to add to the work load. She must have been exhausted.

Maybe I have blocked it out, but I don't ever remember hearing her complain too much about how much there was to do. She always made time to spend with her kids and family, because that was a priority.
Often, there would be dishes overflowing both sides of the sink and onto the counter, work to be done, but she would read a story, or snuggle on the couch, or just visit with us about our day. Because we were more important!
My Mom always made the most simple things lots of fun! Like pizza and movie night- It was tradition to lay a sheet on the living room floor and have Shasta Soda, Pizza, and carrot and celery sticks while we watched a Friday or Saturday night movie. Sometimes she would even let us pull out the hide-a-bed and have a sleepover.

Holidays were special and Mom always did the homemade jammies for Christmas Eve, or new Christmas or Easter dress. It was special and we knew it- and we knew she loved us because she took the time to add her special touch.

She was a thoughtful gift-giver. I loved opening presents from my Mom. She would always listen and watch and see what we were interested in before birthdays or Christmas. Or, she just knew us so well, that whe knew what we would enjoy (most of the time). I always was excited and could hardly wait to see what surprises she worked up for us.

(I still love surprises!!)

My mom loved animals, and let my brothers have all sorts of creatures. We had rats, dogs, cats, lizards, chickens, frogs, tadpoles, fish, and I don't know what else at different points in our childhood. She was really good that way- she never could understand why I didn't LOVE animals, especially when it came so naturally for her.

(I'm working on this now that I have boys and a husband who love animals)

My Mom was one special lady!!! I can't wait to see her again, but for now I try to incorporate the lessons she taught through example into my life. I try to love more, give more, and care less about the things that just don't matter in the eternal scheme of things.

Happy 57th to my dear Momma Llama!

Folding the laundry is fun to do, fun to do, to do to do!

I decided the time had come to teach the boys a new household job.

Folding towels and washrags is completely age appropriate, so there you have it

Chance is my washrag folder He is VERY good at it!

And Hunter is my towel folder

They both do a pretty good job.

The folding isn't quite perfection...YET, but every week it gets a little bit better.

It is fun to watch the boys learn, grow and gain new skills.

A Birthday to Remember

I knew a surprise was coming my way when Kelly asked me who TWO of my friends from our ward were. I told him a few options, and then I knew he made a couple of phone calls. I had 5 days of anticipation and suspense to see what he was planning.

Well, he planned a GREAT afternoon for my friends Courtney, Emily and I. We showed up at a VERY nice day spa, here in Fairbanks and he snuck (with a cooler and a laundry basket covered with a table cloth) back into the back area of the spa. When my friends and I walked back there, this is what we found. A DELUXE spread of fruits, nuts, chocolate dipped strawberries, supreme brownie bites, and a cooler full of fruity drinks and waters.

Of course he brought enough food to feed an army, and we didn't even come close to consuming all of it, but boy I felt like a queen for the day. The reason he set up for us to come to the spa is for each of us to have a pedicure and manicure.

YOU CAN'T BEAT THAT!!

Emily is going to hate me for putting this picture up, but after I took pictures of the food I forgot to take anymore pictures. So, I hurried and snapped this picture of Emily while she was finishing up. (She really is a darling girl, so don't be confused by the blurry picture).

This was the pedicure chair, pretty nice huh?

Another blurry picture taken after the fact.

On my REAL birthday we had Hunter skip preschool and we all went cross country skiing. It was the first time for the boys and the 3rd or 4th time for Kelly and I.

Hunter was a pro and LOVED it!

Chance was really good too, but was tired out pretty quickly.

After skiing, we went to wrestling and then came home and had a little dessert. (Kelly's embarrassed that I didn't have him make a cake or something, but I told him icecream sounded good. So, I got a #3 and two individual candles to represent my 32 years.

It was a fun couple of days for me. Kelly is a very thoughtful planner and gift giver.

I am lucky to have him, and I think he likes to spoil me- it's
GREAT!

Happy Birthday to Me!

If anyone is interested, my sister (step-sister) Emily did this funny post with TERRIBLE old pictures from the past.

Here's the link: http://emjayandtheboys.blogspot.com/2011/03/in-honor-of-my-sister.html

Day of Green

On the 15th of March, in anticipation for the upcoming holiday, the boys collected several of their toys that had green on them so the leprechaun could see all the wonderful

GREEN!

Chance gets really excited about any and all holidays. In fact, he started combining birthday party with St. Patrick's Day.

(He is wearing a b-day hat from his cousin Turner's party- that Aunt Chelsea sent to us from Idaho)
Hunter always cracks me up with his unbuttoned jammy shirts. Now all he needs is a few black chest hairs poking out :)
On the morning of the 17th, we awoke to Lucky Charms on the table, and a trail of shamrocks leading us to the Magic Treasure Box which is full of LOTS of GREEN things.

This year the trail of the leprechaun led to the fridge, where they found the box full of things like Key Lime Pie yogurt, Pringles, green frog pens, green post it notes, green shirts for each boy, and green notebooks. It was funny because after they found the box in the fridge Chance was looking for candy hidden in the living room. (Again combining holidays Easter/St. Patrick's Day this time).

Here is Hunter modeling his new green shirt. He decided he wanted to look pretty nice so he tucked in his shirt and wore a belt. What a guy!!

Chance was really stuck on the idea of eating only green things, so lets just say he ate LOTS of Sugar Snap Peas.

At dinner time, Chance decided it would be appropriate to finally put on his new green shirt for our annual Green Dinner.

Dinner was super yummy! We had Shrimp Alfredo with Green pasta. (Sauce and Noodles were dyed green), and then we had LOTS of Green broccoli and some carrots mixed in. For a drink I colored some lemonade green, and then for dessert everyone had their very own.......

POT OF GOLD !!

It is always a fun day for the

McGee's

Oh what do you do with a Saturday???

This last week was SUPER busy, and I'm not bragging :) I'm complaining.

I truly don't like to be so busy. I like to have plenty of time to just be at home and hang out with the family. So, after the "busy" week we had a Saturday that Kelly was working and we had ABSOLUTELY NO WHERE TO GO, and NOTHING WE HAD TO DO.

So.....

What do you do with such a day?

Well, the boys started the day watching cartoons for an hour, while I exercised and straightened the house a little bit. I happened to be in the room when the boys saw a commercial on how to make a Kai Lan pillow. The boys said they would like to do that, so we changed up the designs (they aren't big into Kai Lan), and made pillows.

Hunter wanted a circle pillow and Chance a heart pillow. I let them choose thier fleece color and then had them sew with me. Then they got to "stuff" thier pillows.

They both decided they wanted zombie type creatures on their pillows. So they each drew out on piece of paper what their zombie should look like and then I helped "design" with the fabric.

They got to do the fabric gluing. They thought it was great!!

Here is Chance with his final product.

Hunter was very specific about colors and shapes of eyes and mouth.

Nice hair! That red stuff....Oh yeah, it is a bloody zombie.

Great!!!

What else did we do with our Saturday? Well, we took pictures of feet,

and crazy boys,

and pictures of ourselves blowing "saliva bubbles"

What a great day!

Valentines Day 2011

We love the holidays at our house! In fact, sometimes we can't wait until the actual day like this Valentines Day for example. It wasn't me this time though, it was Kelly calling it early this year. The boys came out with Kelly and gave me a nice card and some chocolates, Kelly gave me a nice card and a pedicure set (including a 1 hour pedicure from him).

It was great, but I thought we should wait to give the boys their "gifts of LOVE" till the morning, but Kelly guilted me into atleast giving them their chocolate treats.

Sooo........

A Giant Hershey's Kiss was what they got!

They are both big fans of Chocolate, but as you can see from the picture, one has a more pure love of all things chocolate.

This is Hunter heading straight into a chocolate coma.
(No, I didn't let him eat the whole thing that night)

Valentines morning, we generally have pink pancakes or something of that nature, but we had just had German pancakes and so I didn't think we needed a sweet breakfast. So, I used my genius creative side and came up with heart shaped scrambled eggs and ham. We also had a banana. I thought it was obvious that the eggs were a special shape, but apparently it wasn't as noticeable to a 3 and 5 year old.

The boys each got a card from us with a little chocolate heart.

Chance was so excited that he couldn't hold still for a picture.

(Hence the blur!)

Funny Kid

This was my final "craft" for V-day. I was originally going to make it a wall hanging, but discovered it was the perfect holiday hotpad.

After a crazy, busy day of preschool and wrestling we came home and had a yummy heart shaped pizza for dinner. It was fun!

Last but not least here is my junior version of the paper heart garland.

It was kind of a funny V-day this year due to a sick husband, and sick kids the night Kelly and I were going to go out for our "romantic evening". But, all in all we love eachother and are so happy to be a part of our little McGee family.