Help me!!!

Yes, Savannah is cute and funny, but she is going to be the death of me!!! She is the queen of "no", using all the tape in the house and shouting for no reason.

If we make it to her fourth birthday, let alone her wedding day, it will be a miracle!

But, she does something funny and "abracadabra!", I forget that she's a pain in the butt. I can't stay mad for long when her Dad comes home and does "spider hair". A lifetime ago we went to Lake Powell (at least it feels that way). Of course, Savannah loved it. She couldn't get enough of the tube. Every time we got in the boat, she asked to ride on it. When the big boys chickened out, she hopped right on!
And after Powell came the family reunion. Here is one of the few quiet moments in the motorhome while driving to Oregon. Now that I think of it, why didn't Sherie have to take her turn in there???

Here is the happy girl before she was almost washed away. She still talks about it.

Of course a ride on the merry-go-round made it all better.

Annie had lots of fun playing with her cousins on the beach until Luke dumped her fishies out. Yes, she is still talking about that too.

Jer missed her terribly, but she filled him in on all the happenings.
Last weekend we went to Flagstaff with the Ruffs. This picture doesn't even do justice to the dirt. I ended up throwing this shirt away!It looks like Savannah has the same problem as some of her aunts when she is away from home. I got tired of sitting in the bathroom with her so I just put her potty outside. She sat there for at least twenty minutes and still nothing, but she enjoyed herself.

Now we're back home and she has no one to play with again. She plays with playdough a lot and tosses her dollies in the air constantly. I'm not sure what's so fun about that, but it keeps her occupied.

She has suddenly taken an interest in choosing her own clothes and hair accessories. She picked red sparkly barrettes this day so she would "be special". Then she chose this dress and said, "Don't I look fabulous?"

This post has taken me hours to put together, so I have calmed down now. We were just outside flying Savannah's new kite and now she is stapling away at her desk. Let's hope tomorrow is a little easier than today.

Surprise!!

Here I am, two months late and two dollars short. I'm not sure what I've been up to, but it obviously hasn't been blogging. I'll throw a bunch of pictures at you and some funny stories and hope you forgive me for my absence.

Faster daddy, faster! You can't believe how big this helmet is. I don't know how she can even hold her head up!

Holly, Tyler and the kids joined us for Easter. The kids had so much fun riding quads out back and of course, dying eggs.Savannah was so excited to get her "raymonica." She played lots of beautiful music for us "just like on American Idol."

Uh-oh! Caught in the act. Annie got hold of some stuffing and made a mountain which she then decorated with flowers. So creative!Isn't she cute?! Here I attempted to get a picture of her sore neck. For about three days she couldn't turn her head. We felt so bad for her, but it was funny to watch her turn her whole body when we called her name.
Weird science!
Have I told you how smart and imaginative Savannah is? She put these boxes on her feet and walked around for a few minutes. Then she went to the pantry and got the swiffers and told me she was "skiboarding." The next day she got her blocks and the coaster and asked to play the game like at Cici's Pizza. It took me a minute to realize she wanted to play air hockey. Super smart!
Here is Savannah with her friends at Lake Mojave last weekend. That is my style of offroading!And after all that fun, the angel fell asleep.

I guess we have been pretty busy. Sorry to stay gone so long. I'll at least try to take more pictures in the future.

Progress

Savannah slept in her bed all night last night! She came in my room at 4:00 and asked if I would lay with her for a few minutes which I did. She didn't come back in our room 'til 7:00! Tonight I read her two stories and left the room and I haven't heard from her since. Thanks Kidman family for having a routine we can follow!

Finally catching up

FYI - I started this post before I went to Salt Lake and I'm not changing it now.

Let me start by saying I am glad the Olympics are over. I loved watching them, but I didn't go to bed 'til 1:00 every night and I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep. Savannah even liked them and would say she wanted to do each sport she saw. I am fine with skiing and skating, but I draw the line at bobsledding. Also, did anyone else notice that Canada rocks?! Each time their national anthem played, not only did the athletes sing, the entire audience sang along. I didn't notice any group singing when we hosted the Olympics. Get with the program America!

Jeremy gave Savannah this little camp chair and a card for Valentine's Day. She loved them! The card sings "My Girl" and Jer recorded a little message on it too. Annie listened to it a million times. How much longer will she be satisfied with the little things?

No, Jer didn't have the chicken pox. Annie decorated his face with her gem stickers and then they both fell asleep.

Here's Savannah cruising on her quad at Lake Havasu. We went with the Ruffs and the kids had so much fun chasing each other on the quads and jeeps. Annie is a little dare devil when she drives, but it doesn't cross over to the slide.

Here's a glimpse of the playroom after Luke, Annie and Ike stormed through. It's so nice to be able to just close the door!

And here is a pic of my little "artistac." I don't know what that means, but Savannah always says it when she is painting. She was obsessed with using her easel and paints for a few days and I love the paintings she made but not enough to save them. I know I am evil, but I can't stand to have papers lying everywhere. I'll start saving the pictures when I can really tell what she has painted.

It was so nice to see everyone this past week. Thanks for visiting and crafting with me and for entertaining my daughter. (I said goodnight to her at 9:00 and left Jer to read her a story. He has yet to come out of her room. I told you he would have a hard time with the bedtime ritual.) A HUGE thanks to Sherie and Clark for letting me interrupt their week. Love and miss you all and can't wait to have you visit us!

We finally have cousins coming to visit and Savannah is so excited. She talks about Isaac all the time. Today she was eating an apple and said she was going to share it with Isaac when he comes. She also plans on marrying him using a rubberband as a wedding ring.

It will be nice to have Ike and Luke here to play with her and even better now that the yard is somewhat done. We bought some sand toys and Annie is in heaven. We are working on "sand stays in the sandbox" rule.

Here's a look at our beautiful grass which Savannah loves. It will be so nice and cool when it warms up. It'll also cut down on the dirt in the house:)
I don't know why she likes it so much, by my little "cracker" plays on this piece of sod all the time. I guess it's just her size.

I finally got around to some sewing. Savannah was so excited when she saw "Hoot" on my sewing table. "That's just like the owl at Holly's work!" She carries it all around and has taken to chewing on the wings. I'm pretty sure they are going to fall off before too long. I'm going to make owls in every color of the rainbow. They are so cute!

Here is something I worked on while the Brooks were visiting. I am pretty proud of myself for being able to do it. The side towers had to be sewn on by hand and my fingers took a beating. I plan on using this for our church bag - lots of room to store snacks, books, crayons, etc. It's a lot of pink, but you can never have too much pink, right?

Well, that's about it for me. Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Rock on

Eighty-six tons of rock, twelve tons of sand, one happy girl!

Savannah could spend the entire day playing outside as long as someone is around to push her on demand. Luckily, Nana and Papa are here to follow orders for one more day.

The elders quorum president arranged to have a bunch of men and a backhoe here to move rock last Saturday. Men started showing up at 7:30 (fifteen total!) and by 9:00 they had leveled half the rock and all of the sand. These are people who had never met us, but showed up because we needed help. I am still in awe of their kindness.

Steve has been hard at work for two weeks assembling the swingset, digging trenches, laying sprinklers and more. What would we do without him?

Jeremy found another use for his quad and Steve thought it looked like fun. That is a piece of a pizza oven conveyer belt they are using to level the ground. Boys and their toys!

Here are a few pics of what we've done so far:

Swingset and sandbox

Before rock

After rock

Fire and horseshoe pits

Who wants to make a reservation???

Rain, Rain, Go Away

How does the weather know when you have outdoor plans? Sue and Steve are down here to help landscape the backyard, but we haven't been able to do much. We had hoped to finish the playground today, but as you can see, the weather didn't cooperate. We are having rock delivered on Friday and I hope the big trucks don't get stuck in the mud!
Here is Savannah showing off her "beautiful centerpiece". She learned that from Max and Ruby. It's amazing what she learns from TV. By the way, she can now pronounce her name correctly - no more Sasannah.
And here is the little angel sleeping with her bear. How can she be so sweet while sleeping and such a nightmare when awake?! Everything I tried to feed her today she would push away and say "Yuck!" Everything except strawberries, smarties and cheetos. Somebody help me!

I'll leave you with another sweet Savannah moment as Jer was leaving for work:

"Daddy aren't you forgetting something? My hug."