Serious fun on a Sunday

Andy found this little tomato in my garden and I thought he looked like a little man with a tie or something. Yes, it's true, the two tomatoes are stuck together. All I did was add the little tepanyaki hat, Ginsu knife, and of course his winning smile!! THIS is the fun we have on Sundays in the Higham home. Now if he could just make me some sushi, we'd be in business!

Samantha's first day of Kindergarten!

She's a model, I know!

And a goofball.

Isn't that the most beautiful face you've ever seen???

Walking into class with her friend Karlee in front.

Today was Samantha's first day of Kindergarten and she was both excited and nervous! She was excited until we got there and she had to line up for class.......she wasn't quite sure where to go or what to do. Thank goodness I got to be right there and her dear teacher was also telling the kids what to do and where to go. I didn't cry when dropping her off because I knew she would have a great time and I was excited for the time with just Alex. We went swimming!! I could tell he was very much enjoying time with just mommy and, man, it was a lot easier with just one kid!!! I was excited to go pick her up from school though and hear how her day went. She had a lovely time and was excited to be a member of the "green table". Her friend Karlee is in the same class and I think that really helped with her first-day jitters. As soon as she saw Karlee she grabbed her hand and held it until it was time to go into class. Sweet little girls!!! I am so proud of Samantha and I know that she will be the queen of that class in no time!!!! Just remember to learn along with your socializing please, Samantha!!!

So artistic!

Samantha took these 2 pictures (Hello Kitty and Spiderman) and I actually really like them!! I am going to have them printed out and frame them for the kids rooms. I know they are a little blurry, but I'll just print them small and so you hopefully won't be able to notice. Talented little mite!

I'm so proud of my master of MBAs! He mastered that MBA....kicked it to the curb!

As you may well know (since it's all I have been able to talk about for some time) Andy graduated this weekend from Thunderbird with his MBA. I flew down to Arizona Thursday afternoon to meet him there and to PAR-TAY! We had a cocktail reception at the school.....which we ditched, and then a party with his 26 other EMBA classmates at a clubhouse nearby. It was good to meet all of the people he has been working with the past 18 months. They have all gotten very close and it was apparent they really enjoy each others company. Someone had a great idea to present the student's family members with a Diploma of Appreciation for supporting them during these past 18 months. So, I am now the proud owner of a degree in Master of Supporting Arts! It was very cute and well done and nice to know they appreciated the hard work WE have had to go through as well.

Friday morning we slept in, went to breakfast (Coco's!! Nummy!), came back to the hotel and went for a swim. It was nice and relaxing and we enjoyed just lazing about and talking. After our swim we went back to our room and watched TV for a bit and I took a little snooze while Andy got ready for graduation. He had to be downstairs early to get help with his robes and hat and get pictures taken. When I finally dragged my butt out of bed I got ready and met his parents downstairs. We were able to take some pictures before the ceremony started and just chat before finding our seats. The ceremony was actually quite well done and all the speakers were enjoyable. Andy's classmate that lives in Salt Lake was the best speaker and I really enjoyed what he had to say. They presented the names for gradution and each student got their name read and diploma handed and about 20 pictures taken and then it was over! After a few more pictures we went back up to the room to get changed and then left to go explore and enjoy our evening. We did a little shopping and met Andy's parents for dinner in Scottsdale before heading back to the hotel.

Unfortunately, we had to wake up and head home this morning. Andy was anxious to see his kids so we were happy about that part, but an extra day of relaxing at the pool would have been nice. Oh well!!! A big thank you to Kami, Richele, and my parents for watching the kids while I was away. I was so glad to be there and to be able to focus on Andy and his big day and I couldn't have done that with the kids there, so thank you!!

Congratulations Andy!! You are done with school now!!! Get ready for a huge Honey-Do list!!! I love you! Also, if you want to add your thoughts for our family journal, please just add on to this post. Or start a new one, whichever. You ARE the MBA graduate now so you probably know better than I do!! ;-)

Ahhhhhhh, little brothers!!!

So, here is the story behind this video: We were eating dinner and the kids decided they wanted to tell stories. If you can't understand Alex here is the gist of his story.......
There once was a little boy named Joseph Smith. When he was a little boy he had a gun shooter and he shot the bad Lamenites. Then there was a creepy spider at some point who killed either the Lamenites or Joseph Smith or someone. The End.
Next, it was Samantha's turn. But Alex translated that as it being his turn to be a pesky little brother. I have to say....the camera shaking was me laughing. I thought it was hysterical!!! At first I thought Alex's story was going to be the funniest part, but it turns out the ensuing battle for attention was the best part!!!
Enjoy a glimpse into my life!!!

Elephants

I have no right to be so excited about the birth of the baby elephant at our zoo, but I am. A new elephant!!! A baby!! At a mere 250 pounds she is the newest addition to the Hogle Zoo and I can not wait for them to put her on display! The day after she was born they had her picture in the paper and since the kids and I have been waiting for over a year and a half for her to be born, I rushed into the living room to tell the kids the baby elephant was born!! You would have thought I just told the kids that their rooms were now made of chocolate and that they never needed to sleep ever again for all the excitement that came from them!! There was screaming, there was jumping, and the kids were pretty excited too!!!
I proceeded to tell them all the facts the paper had and show them the pictures. One of the pictures had a picture with the momma elephant as well. Samantha found it HILARIOUS that the momma elephants name is Christie. Her mom and the baby elephant's mom have the same name!! What are the chances?? The kids started asking questions about the mommy and the daddy elephant and when I explained that the daddy elephant lives at a zoo far away (which brings up the question about elephant artificial insemenation.........nevermind.....ew) the kids thought that was very curious. I explained that the mommy and baby girl were going to stay together and the daddy is going to stay at his zoo far away. My dear, sweet Samantha then exclaimed, "Well that doesn't make for a very happy family!!!!". You are EXACTLY right Samantha, which is why your daddy and mommy are going to stay together forever!!! Unless, of course, daddy finds a new, hot, young thing that doesn't walk like a cripple and leaves mommy. Then you can visit daddy at the cemetary.

I KID!!!!

House

It's been a wicked busy summer in the Higham house! I am so excited that Samantha starts school 2 weeks from today and Alex follows the next Tuesday. I think they are ready and I am DEFINITELY ready. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on blogging once things settle down. But really, is it ever going to settle down??? Probably not.

We decided to get a little more serious about selling the house and so we got a realtor on board. He finally got it listed on www.utahrealestate.com today. Here is the link. I think the pictures look great and I am excited to see if we get any hits on it!

Oh.....and also.....Andy graduates in 1 week!!!!!!!!

Wherein I use the word "ninny"

Being a wife and mother and a few pounds heavier than I was at 20 (I use the word "few" very loosely) tends to do wonderful things to the confidence you have in yourself. And by wonderful I mean TOTALLY CRUSH YOUR CONFIDENCE!!!! That being said, I noticed at the swimming pool in our hotel today that the cute teenage lifeguard was possibly checking me out!!! What??? That doesn't happen anymore! Especially in a swimming suit! So, I went on feeling a bit confident in myself for a while.......I may have even strutted a bit (of course, I WAS holding my 3 year-olds hand and heading to the kiddie pool, but logistics don't matter when you are strutting.). Then, it dawned on me!! Just a few moments earlier I had rocketed down the water-slide in such a stunning torpedo-like fashion that my swimming suit slipped.......and showed some boob. Just a bit of nip. I knew this because, a. I could feel it, and b. Andy was watching and told me he saw my ninny (then he giggled like a 10 year-old boy!)!!! Mr. Lifeguard was sitting RIGHT THERE with full view of the water-slide passengers as they exited. So I realized: cute teenage lifeguard wasn't checking me out cuz I looked good.....he was just hoping for another peep show!!!!

Farewell confidence......I barely knew thee!

FINALLY - pictures of Samantha's birthday party

Happy children eating cake and ice cream.

Beautiful birthday girl - and Clark looking confused.

Singing happy birthday.

Kids getting ready for cake.

Andy did A LOT of water balloon filling.

Water balloon fight.

Tried to play with a "hot potato" type water balloon toy...kids didn't like it.

Chillin'.

Rainbow cake.

Kids First Soccer Game

Best buddies

Reassuring sister

Samantha got to kick-off the game.

Kids in the mix of it all.

Gotta love Alex's running stance.

Probably discussing their next play.

Alex and his corner kick.

Samantha was a goofy, but very amazing goalie.

Goofy, like I said.

Alex the goalie.

Just a quick picture

I love this picture of me and my adorable nephews. Too bad you can't see cute Caleb's face, but his back is pretty cute too!! We were in Bear Lake hanging out in this picture.

Busy busy!

I made scones for breakfast and have the cakes in the oven now for the birthday party later.......plus we are getting ready for our soccer game at 10.00. Hope the neighbors don't sleep past 8.30 because Andy is about the mow the lawn. I can't wait to see both my kids play soccer on the same team! No worries - I'll post the adorable pictures later!