3 Kids in 3 Years, the downside.

The kids were chatting over breakfast this morning and one of their favorite topics is trying to figure out how old they'll be in relation to a sibling and here's what Jeff and I said, it amused me so I thought I'd share:

J: I'll be 13 when Tessa turns 8.
M: Nope
J: 12?
M: No
J: 11?
M: Negative
J: 10??
M: Yes
J: That is messed up.

Leah, Tessa, and Jeffey when they were shorter :)

My Mornings

Okay, so here's a post to show what I do in the mornings. I get the beasts ready for school, read scriptures, load them all up in the GEM and off we merrily go.

We drop Jeff, Leah and Tessa at the corner and they walk across the street to school then Alana, Pete and I head over to drop Alana off at preschool.

Some days Oliver is already there and some days he has been dropped off to us earlier and we take him. But they have fun being in the same class.

Then it is just Pete and I, we have a fun drive home (he loves riding in the GEM, he smiles and claps and makes electric motor noises).

After that it is feed Peter some delicious oatmeal mush and let him play until naptime then I get to do laundry and fun cleaning stuff until I get Alana and Olie from school at 11.

So there, that's what I do in the mornings. Pretty thrilling stuff, eh?

Overheard 2 minutes ago. . .

(While playing with the E-Pet animals)

Oliver - Frog with hopping power!
Alana - Monkey with hanging power!
Oliver - Dog with barking power!
Alana - Unicorn with stabbing power! And together we're the Super Heroes!
Oliver - No, the Super Blast Wonder Heroes!!

Couples Survey

Thanks Kathy for this survey. My Ryan has the day off today (he's just gone to get parts for his new toy but he'll be back soon) so this is a nice day to do this survey since we get to be together. I've just got to say that I've got the best husband ever and I surely do adore him.

♥ What are your middle names? MacDonald and Joi
♥ How long have you been together? 12 years (?!!?)
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? Sort of a long time, went to HS together but didn't become friends until after HS and "hung out" a few months before we dated.
♥ Who asked who out? We were sort of like magnets, I can't pinpoint a time when either of us asked the other out, we became acquainted and BAM that was that.
♥ How old are each of you? Ryan is thirty and I am thirty*cough*one
♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? equal, ours are kind of jumbled together (ha-ha!)
♥ Do you have any children together? Many, 5
♥ What about pets? 4 chickens
♥ Did you go to the same school? Yes
♥ Are you from the same home town? Eventually
♥ Who is the smartest? Ryan
♥ Who is the most sensitive? Moi
♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? We like Olive Garden but we rarely go out.
♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Halifax, Nova Scotia
♥ Who has the craziest exes? I guess me, but just because he has only one.
♥ Who has the worst temper? I would probably have to say me nowadays, he has really cooled his jets, and when people color on the couch with lip-gloss. . . argh.
♥ Who does the cooking? Me, but Ryan will cook on Sundays mostly.
♥ Who is more social? Ryan is so very funny in group situations, I just sit back and enjoy him.
♥ Who is the neat-freak? I guess me, but thankfully neither of us is overly tidy.
♥ Who is more stubborn? Probably my sweetie is.
♥ Who hogs the bed? We take turns, if I'm cold I'm all over him.
♥ Who wakes up earlier? Lately him.
♥ Where was your first date? No idea.
♥ Who has the bigger family? Him, 7 siblings
♥ Do you get flowers often? Sometimes, but it seems so silly to get them since they are so expensive I tell him not to.
♥ How do you spend the holidays? At his parent's house and our house.
♥ Who is more jealous? Me
♥ How long did it take to get serious? a couple of months
♥ Who eats more? For sure me, always pregnant or nursing. . .
♥ Who does/ did the laundry? Me
♥ Who’s better with the computer? Him
♥ Who drives when you are together? Him, he LOVES to drive.

The past several weeks have been pretty exciting for us Livingstone Bunch because our brother, Justin Livingstone, has been called to serve in the Everett Washington Mission! He enters the MTC tomorrow and is traveling up to Utah today with his parents so we went to a party for him last night. Sardella's Pizza take-out and lots of kids running around - woo-hoo! It was a lovely evening and he will be a wonderful missionary.

I met Justin when he was 7 years old, I went to his baptism! I guess that means I'm old. But it has been fun to watch that sweet boy grow up to be taller than me (!) and a great *almost* man.

8 is Great!

My camera turned up! Someone from the theater called last week and had found it so I am happy now. Here's our Bug with her fancy chicken fingers and french fries meal.
Here is the birthday girl outside the theater.
And here is the dear Lady and her sweet Daddy yesterday at her baptism. The woman that gave a talk on baptism compared a testimony to a tree, that whether it is a sapling or a redwood, it is still a tree, and a testimony can be small or big, it is still a testimony. So I asked Leah what kind of tree she is and she said, "a sapling" and I asked her if she believed Joseph Smith was a prophet? "Yes", does she believe the Book of Mormon? "Yes", does she believe Jesus lived and was resurrected for us? "Yes". So we decided her tree is rather larger than a sapling, maybe even a regular sized tree. I sure like this part of being a Mom.

She got her very own set of scriptures with her name on them and she had them out ready to go to church with her this morning before she was even dressed. She is so excited about Activity Days and gets to go to her first meeting on Tuesday! It is such an exciting time for our little Lady Bug!

Leah is 8

Our Leah turned 8 yesterday! She is growing up so very quickly. So to celebrate she and I went to a matinee showing of Arizona Broadway Theater's Annie Get Your Gun. It was so much fun, I had borrowed the movie from the library a couple of weeks ago in preparation of this event so we already knew the music and the story. It was dinner theater so we got to eat fancy food and be fancy girls at the fancy theater. On the way there we stopped at Walmart (cuz we're fancy) and got Leah a new birthday outfit. She kept turning towards me and whispering, "I like my new outfit!" every once in a while during the show.

That picture shows it, I did take pictures of our theater experience but I seem to have misplaced my camera (argh) and I feel sick about the lost pictures of our adventure more than anything else. Anyways, onwards and upwards, so after the wonderful show we came home to get ready real quick for the pizza party which happened about 15 minutes after we got back!

Almost all of her cousins were there and aunts and uncles and so on and so forth. She asked if she could have a friend come over for the party but I am just not ready for that yet, I told her next year, for sure next year (argh).

It was a wild and crazy party, I'll tell you that much. But we had fun times and she had a great and hopefully memorable day.

What's up with the turtle cake, you ask? Well, she asked for a watermelon cake with ladybugs so the middle part is a watermelon (work with me here people) and there are pink ladybugs around it (I ran out of pink frosting and so there are two green leaves? peeled kiwis? Who knows, I ran out of time. But there had to be 8 of them because, well, you should know why by now!