More Good Times with Good Friends

We got together last Saturday over Memorial Weekend with our great friends and former neighbors, the Paynes. We used to all live in the same little neighborhood in Lehi, and our girls have stayed friends over the years. This is one of the calmest shots I could get out of them--all girls. Not a man child among us.

The kids and Brad started out with Guitar Hero; then once Kev arrived from work (about an hour late, due to my fabulous directions) we moved on to the "Would You Rather" game. Great fun. It has questions such as, "As a man, would you rather have your grandmother's first name or her haircut?" Hmmm. Call me John (the name of both my grandpas) any day in place of staring at my thinning silver comb-over :)

The girls played tag, keep-away and hide n seek all over the Paynes' house. My girls think Celene is the best mom ever because the allows catch in the house!!

Kourtney and Kellie met in nursery when the girls were three years old and were instant buddies. These are a few cute memory moments.

Kourt and Kellie at the pumpkin patch for a pre-school field trip at the age of three.

Kellie, Kaitlyn and Kourtney dancing.

Kaitlyn, Kellie and Kourtney painting their toes.

College BFFs!!

We had a great Memorial Weekend. I got to kick it off Friday night with my best girlfriends from college. Liza took this great picture of us (although I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at--hello, Mindy). We were missing Andrea (who's in Nashville still?--where is Andrea?), Katie (who's in Florida) and Emily (who's in Virginia).

We met at Gateway, chatted and ate at Z'tejas, skipped a movie and chatted more over dessert in Applebees until nearly 1:00. So much fun. I love these girls.

Next to me in the picture is Eliza, who is now the mother of four boys. Liza all through college always had the best clothes and the most beautiful hair. I still remember her sister Alli saying that when Eliza wakes in the morning she still has perfect hair. The closet opens, the birds and the deer come out to greet her. So true. Liza is a classic beauty. Liza loves slurpies and has always had the best one-liners. She and her entire family are hilarious.

Next to Eliza is Tricia. We went to high school together, but we were never really bffs til college, when she came to room with us from Rick's (byu idaho, whatever). Tricia always had the longest real fingernails I have ever seen. My favorite memories of Tricia are Dr. Pepper, peanut butter M&Ms and giggling over nothing for hours. Tricia married Kevin's roomate Shane and now has three girls and a boy.

Amy is next to Tricia. She now has two boys and a girl. She married Kevin's other roomate Brett. My favorite memories of Amy are seeing her duct taped to the bench by the pool (on account of the boys we later married) and visiting her in Arizona with some freshman friends (so I could visit my then-beau who lived in Mesa near Amy). Remember how Bryce sort of totalled the rental car we were driving and was a hemopheliac so we spent some time of that vacation in the er?--good times.

We had so much fun. Can't wait to do it again, Girls!!

The Braces are Off!!

Kourt got her braces off today. Here are the before and afters. The cute little picture in the Mickey shirt was taken just over two years ago. The current picture of Kourt in braces was taken a month ago on the day she was supposed to have gotten them off. Our favorite receptionist at the ortho said Kourt looked two years older without her braces. Didn't need to hear that. We celebrated with a little breakfast at McDonald's after the ortho appointment. Congrats, Kourt!

New Firepit

Yay, tonight we christened our new fire pit/patio in the back yard with a great round of smores. You really can't beat smores. Of course we couldn't escape the yard without jumping on the trampoline (kinda dark by then). Yes, Grace is wearing her Barbie dress-up dress.

Stop and Smell the Tulips?

Kourtney and Grace are communing a bit too much with nature ...
Kourt and Grace also came to the gardens. They had fun and ended up splashing in the wading pool. The weather was gorgeous, and Grace was thoroughly soaked. She had to be stripped to her princess undies to get her home. Thanks, Uncle Kenny for helping with the wild child!!

Knudsen Sisters Photo Shoot

We had so much fun taking these pictures at the Tahitian Noni gardens in Provo of the Knudsen sisters. Thanks, Kirsten (Kev's little sister) for not only crafting these beautiful gardens, but also for getting us all down there for this little get-together. Thanks, Anthony (married to Kirsten) for snapping pics w/my camera along with the real pictures with Kirsten's real camera. Mine are kind of the out-takes. Scroll down for a collage off all the garden pictures.

Cute Boy--Fast Car!!

Kevin went to the girls' school last week for Vehicle Day. Parents who use a work vehicle are invited to come to school, do a little presentation and show off their wheels. Ashley really wanted Kev to participate and bring a cool car from Lapoint. Kourtney, not so much. She finally concede to go with Ashley to Lapoint Ford and supervise while Ashley picked out a car for Kev to bring--something cool enough for a dad to bring to school without being too embarrassing.



The vehicle of choice--a blue Mustang GT. It was really fun to see all the big cars and trucks in the schoolyard that day. The kids thought it was great. Even Kourtney wasn't nearly as mortified as she thought she would be. Her dad did a great job presenting the car. All the kids thought the car was cool. Nobody really even noticed her crazy mother running around taking pictures, and Gracie was considered cute by her classmates instead of annoying.



All-in-all, a success. And Kev really did do a great job.

Great--Here Come the Waterworks!!

Ashley's third grade class recently held their annual Manners' Day. Ms. Dennison does things a bit differently from the other classes. Instead of doing it near Valentine's Day, she turns Manners' Day into an impressive Mother's Day program.

Both kids and mothers came dressed up. They covered groups of desks with colored butcher paper to look like mini tables, then decorated them with tissue paper flowers made into napkin holders and lollipop bouquets. We had a little buffet complete with mini sandwiches and giant strawberries. We got cute pot holders hand-stenciled with butterflies and wrapped in decorated brown bags. We even had our pictures taken in front of the specially decorated Happy Mother's Day bulletin. Thanks, Ashley--and Ms. Dennison.

The absolute highlight, however, was when each child stood up and began singing "Wind Beneath My Wings" to their mom. I quickly switched my camera to video mode and captured most of the first verse. I wasn't sure where to point the camera though because all eyes began tearing up. I spared you the second verse because I was afraid the sound of the song might be drowned out by sniffling, crying mothers.

Just watch this precious moment. No really, I'm fine; I don't need a tissue. There are not tears dripping off my chin ...

Calendar girls

How cute are Gracie and her friend Macie? They played together today while I was at school for Ashley's Manners Day program. They have so much fun together, and they adore each other. They look like some sort of RL add.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to our beautiful moms--I'm so grateful for all the sweet moms in our life. We would have sad lives indeed without the love of Kevin's moms. We love Kev's mom Beth, Grandma Johnson (who came to Kourt's soccer game on Saturday and made it so much fun--thanks, Grandma) and Grandma Knudsen (Gowans). Happy Mother's Day, moms!!

Also, I love my moms. I already posted this somewhere else, but I thought it was worth repeating. I don't know many girls who get the chance to have two angel moms in one lifetime.

I love you, Mom!!

Plus, these gorgeous roses and the card that made me cry from Kevin are definitely worth posting. Thanks, Sweetie!!

Race for the Cure

Today was our annual 5k run at the Gateway. Ford sponsors the Susan G. Komen breast cancer Race for the Cure, and of course since Kev is a Ford man we run. Now I am all for supporting a great cause, but this event gets a little bit crazier every year. More and more people flock to the Gateway to "race" and celebrate survivors or loved ones.

It's difficult to move, let alone run for at least a mile. However, it has become a Knudsen family tradition. This is even Grace's third year. Kev pushes the stroller and tries to keep his patience with the crowds. This year Ashley and I ran on ahead. Ash did great. She started walking and complaining until I pointed out a little old lady ahead of her walking with the help of supportive braces. I told Ash that lady was beating her. And we were off :)

Major Fashion Fopaux?

Say it isn't so:

I should really leave this alone, but I just can't. I was taking yw pictures of our camp kick-off last night, and I had someone snap a shot of me and some of the girls. (By the way, our new yw blog is really cute; we just started it a couple of weeks ago. It's posted at the bottom of my links under "Young Women"). Anyway, I was loading the pictures onto my computer today so I could post them on our yw blog, when I noticed something weird. WHAT??? That's not right.

I am wearing the exact same brown and white striped shirt in this photo as I am in just about every picture on this blog, or in every photo taken in the last year and loaded onto my computer for that matter. It's there in my first ever blog post. It's also in the next post of our trip to Puerto Vallarta, along with its twin, the green and white striped shirt. That can't be right. I do not feel deprived of clothing. I have plenty of shirts, and I wear them in a fairly random rotation order. Is this just a strange coincidence? I really hope so.

It is cute. I bought it along with its green and white striped twin about a year ago. I am especially loving the green one right now because it goes so well with my cute green Bumbles watch I won at bunco, the green stacking rings Kerry gave me and/or my favorite white and brown wedge shoes.






But, I really do not wear this shirt all that often--do I? Maybe subconsciously on the rare occasion when I allow people to take my picture I think, 'Yes, it's okay for you to take my picture today because I'm wearing the brown and white striped shirt. It's pretty cute.'

Maybe I really do wear this shirt and its green counterpart way too much. Those of you who see me fairly often, please tell me. Honestly. I can take it. Really. Just tell me.

Well slap my hide and call me Nancy

I recently found the blogs of two long-lost friends, and I'm feeling like Nancy Drew--without getting myself tied up in an abandoned building or being threatened by a "ghost." I was so excited to find them. I can't believe I ever lost such complete and total touch with these two great people.

First of all, I totally freaked out Christina--my good friend from high school--by leaving a random comment on her blog. I may have made her leary of ever trusting cyberspace again. She posted this hilarious picture of us from a high school journalism trip. I luuuuv this picture. I can't belive all our hair fit in the frame. Starting at the bottom left, we have Jeanette (whose magazine website is linked on the side column), Sandra, Christina and me. Christina is witty, smart and never wastes space with insincerity. Did I mention hilarious?

Also, I found my cute college roommate Emily's blog. Her husband Jeff just happened to post a few pictures of their new baby back in December for the benefit of some friends in California. They never really looked at the blog again until I happened to find it. Crazy. I copied this picture of Emily with her three kids from her blog too.

I love cyberspace. Although it is a little creepy that our information is accessible world-wide (ah, hence the name 'world-wide web'), I for one am very glad to be a person with that kind of access. If hunting down old friends from the past and making them feel insecure, wondering if there are other stalkers out there who aren't so innocent is wrong, then I don't want to be right. Anyway, glad to have found you, Emily and Christina!!!