again . . . seriously??

Coleman seems to have a great talent for injuring himself, particularly his face. How are we going to keep him so handsome if he keeps doing this? Remember this injury followed closely by this one? Granted, it has been a while, so hopefully he can continue to spread his injuries out a bit.

At least this one didn't involve a bike and a missing helmet. He was playing tennis on the driveway with Garrett and ran right into this lovely green post. There was a lot of blood, quite a few tears, and some panic about needing staples in his head. But once we assured him that there would be no staples, only stitches, he settled down. Our wonderful pediatrician, Dr. Jones, met us at his office (yes, on a Saturday!) and stitched him right up--8 beautiful stitches. All better!

locks of love

I really wish I knew how to get the photos on here bigger! This is a 12x6 page, but I can't get it to show up any bigger! Can anyone help me? For now, just click on it and it will open up so you can see the whole thing :)

the odd couple

Claire and Taylen have been friends since they were 4 years old. Taylen has always been taller than Claire, but lately it seems the difference has become even greater. Check out these pictures:

Here are a few pictures of the girls over the years. The height difference increases each year!


Here are some pictures taken last week. Poor Claire! She's her mother's daughter in so many ways. I once sat by the tallest guy on our folk dance team and the pictures would have looked a lot like this. It's her lot in life!

I love hiking

I was able to accompany the 4th year girls on their hike and camp-out last weekend. We went into Sequoia National Park and hiked to Big Baldy. It was a gorgeous little hike, beautiful weather, and a fun group of girls and leaders. My good friend Krista was in charge, so mainly I went to hang out with her :) Sadly I only took pictures on the hike so I don't have any of the campsite or of the sequoia grove we visited, so these will have to suffice! Hopefully other girls will hear about the great time we had and want to go next year. Not many girls went this time, but I think those that went had a wonderful time. I know I did! Krista even brought me treats for my birthday which was the second day there. You're the best!!

The whole group (minus our two men), ready to start!

The women of the hike--Carla, Krista, Me, Shari, and Jennifer

Krista says we always take these pictures that look more cozy than they should--haha, I think they're cute!

The girls on top of Big Baldy--8,211 feet above sea level!

My favorite shot from the hike of the girls taking a break on the trail

almost broken

Anson likes to tell people that he broke his nose--where did this need for drama come from? I'm sure it's not broken or he would be in more pain. And how did this happen, you might ask? Well, in one of his more silly moods the other night, he decided it would be loads of fun to run around the house with a hat pulled over his face. Fun, right? And I'm sure it was--right up until he tripped and fell into our wooden bench. Instant blood and howls. He's fine now. He just looks pretty funny. I couldn't get a picture that really showed how funny he looks. It's amazing how changing the shape of the nose a bit really changes your look.

beautiful weekend

We enjoyed a wonderful trip to Tropic for the Memorial Day weekend. We even took a couple of extra days off so we could really enjoy ourselves. The whole Burbidge family was there--even better! Here are a couple of the highlights. (Mom--be sure to click on the scrapbook pages to open them :)

The Dinosaur Tracks: We drove out to this very cool place in the Grand Staircase National Monument where there are dinosaur tracks all over this sandstone outcropping. Our family had been once before, but Claire and Coleman were too young to remember. It is so amazing because there are no signs telling you it's even there, let alone telling you to stay off. We walked all over them, trying to figure out what had happened. Our highly trained scientific minds ;) concluded that this was some kind of watering hole because there are many tracks in lines like the animals were walking to a destination. Then there are areas where there are tons of tracks all together, crossing and on top of each other. It's really hard to tell what you're seeing in some of the pictures, but trust me, it's cool. My favorite are the smaller tracks that seem to have the mark of a tail dragging through them. Amazing!



Upper Calf Creek Falls Hike: This was an incredible hike that no one but Dixie had done before. From the top you can't imagine the lush oasis that is hiding at the bottom of the canyon. It was so beautiful! It was a pretty strenuous hike and all the kids did amazingly well. The Burbidge family raises great hikers! Anson had to hike out without his pants since they were wet and rubbing him. Very cute.




I took these pictures on the drive out of the Calf Creek area. This is all in the Grand Staircase area. It is such gorgeous country! You can see parts of the road we were on. A part of the road that you can't see right here follows a ridge that drops off on both sides--amazing!

fun with birthday food

I needed to add the invitation we made cause it was so darn cute!

(click on these to open them so you can read the text)

P.S. if you want the full instructions and the templates for the paper goods click here. I didn't use her template for the box because I already had some, but I used the blank one for the french fry holder and used Photoshop Elements to add my text.

late April Fools day

Claire and I prepared a special April Fools dessert for the other kids. We told them we had a special dessert for them, we'd spent tons of time making it, etc. They didn't clue into the day at all, even Coleman. Doesn't it look super yummy?


Coleman didn't think so at first. Isn't that a great look? Just what we were going for!

my very hungry caterpillar

Anson just turned 4--I know, hard to believe. I think he's been going through a growing spurt lately because first of all, he's been unusually grumpy, but mostly he's hungry all the time. The number one thing to hear from him lately is, "I'm still hungry." I hear it so often that I've started calling him the very hungry caterpillar! So for his birthday I decided to make a very hungry caterpillar cake. I actually thought this up all on my own. Can you believe it? I didn't search the internet for hours to find a picture. I just thought it up in my own little brain and made it! Granted it's not the most complicated cake in the world, but it did turn out pretty cute. And Anson really liked it--need I say more?

Prior to this we celebrated a joint birthday with his cousin Abby and the extended Coleman family on Easter weekend. Two birthdays--lucky boy!

progress

I am proud to say that, although not at the level that I dream of and have written about, I am making progress with my exercise regimen. I have been consistent over the last several weeks and have actually started enjoying the workouts! I have even gone on my own when my friend Monica can't join me. Now that's progress! Now if I could just master the housekeeping part . . .

I know it's crazy, but why can't I stay motivated when I know how much better I feel when I am consistently working out? I hate how I feel and how I look when I'm out of shape . Why isn't that motivation enough? One word--lazy. I've fought the tendency my whole life. But I'm feeling good about the gym right now, so if anyone wants to be consistent with me, come along!!

almost famous

The lip sync competition was written up in the local Sanger newspaper featuring Claire's picture. There's nothing like seeing your name--and picture--in print, even if it is in a small paper!

Here's the link to the article.

proud parents

Is that bad to say? Is proud bad when you've got great kids? I don't think so. We are just happy they're all doing well at what they enjoy and that they're happy.

Ellie began Kindergarten without the advantage of preschool, so she had a bit of a slow start. But she has made huge improvements and just received the Master Reader award for her class. Way to go Ellie! We're so proud of your hard work in school and at home!


Claire and Coleman performed in their school talent show a few weeks ago. Everyone expects this of Claire, but Coleman made his stage debut with his performance of Weird Al's "Couch Potato" which is the parody of Emenem's "Lose Yourself." He has the whole song memorized--it's quite amazing. He was a bit nervous and practically wrung the life out of that poor microphone, but he did a great job. Awesome Coleman!


Claire did a great job, of course, singing "Maybe" from Annie. She's been working on this with her voice teacher and remembered all the things she'd been taught. She looked adorable as well.


Now for the really exciting news. Remember this costume? Well, last night was the District finals for the lip sync competition. Here's Claire backstage before her performance of "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics.


And here she is showing off her 1st prize trophy! She won first for the solo competitors! She was very surprised because there were lots of very good acts. The boy with her is Nicolas who was first from their school and came in second in the district. She was one very excited girl last night! Great job Claire! We are so proud of you!


Sorry for the quality on all these indoor pictures. I can't seem to get the adjustments right. I am in desperate need of a Nikon class in Fresno--anyone, anyone?

a beautiful day

On Presidents Day we took a little hike up at Pine Flat Lake. It's always a good hike for the kids and adults alike. We took the Gages and Stef with us to enjoy the gorgeous day. After so much rain we just had to take advantage of the weather!

Coleman and his skull treasure

Krista and Jet--she got more exercise than I did :)

"The family and the cows regarded each other" (my version of "Babe")

Ellie and Heidi by the lake

ever had a day like this?

this and that

A few pictures of the latest goings-on at the Burbidge home:

Claire participated in her school lip-sync competition today and won 2nd place! This means that she and the 1st place winner will go on to the district competition in March. She performed to "Sweet Dreams" by Annie Lennox so she dressed like Annie in the 80s.

She came up with most of the choreography herself. She wanted to use the table like the table dance to the same song from So You Think You Can Dance a few years ago. She was very creative. Garrett filmed it, so if it came out half-way decent we'll post that later. She really put a lot of work into this--great job Claire!!


Ellie and Anson were lucky enough to stay with Grammy and Grandpa while I was in Puerto Rico. To top off those fun-filled 10 days, we rode the bus and the train home. It was a nice way to travel with kids--I highly recommend it!


I can't help but take these pictures every once in a while. Coleman and Anson like to sleep together, not just in the same bed (a twin by the way), but really together. Every night when I check on them they are connected in some way. I try to remember how cute they are sleeping when they are awake and fighting. They really do love each other.


And last but not least, our crazy broccoli-eating cat! Yes, that's a piece of chicken next to the broccoli. She did finally nibble on it, but not until she had downed a couple of big pieces of the green stuff! Is this strange? I find it a little odd. She has been known to lap up spilled green smoothie off the kitchen floor and totally ignore nicely diced pork roast. Go figure.

isla del encanto

Here's what I have to show for my week in Puerto Rico. Claire was disappointed that I didn't take any pictures of Miranda's house, so if you are dying to see pictures of her house you can look at them on her blog. We spent most of the time just hanging out like old times, watching Pride and Prejudice (both versions), Twilight, went to New Moon again, read lots of books, made hair do-dads for our girlies, cooked, shopped and just generally enjoyed being together. It rained most of the time but we did get to enjoy the beach near her home for Jordan's birthday and the rainforest another day. It doesn't matter if it's raining there--the foliage is so dense you don't really feel the rain. It's just wet all the time!

My three-shot panorama of the beach--can you tell?