I HAVE SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO TELL YOU ALL!!!! NO, I'M NOT PREGNANT (thank heavens)!!! I HAVE STARTED A NEW BLOG!!! I'M SICK TO DEATH OF THIS PRE-MODERN VERSION OF BLOGGER!!! Enough with the shouting. Anyway, I have included a link to my new blog, over there...under the "Fellow Bloggers" section. It says, in all caps, "ADAMS FAMILY ZOO". Just click on that and it will take you straight (and I mean straight) to my new blog. I haven't had much time to play with it yet, but hopefully, I'll have a more hip-looking blog in the near future. Oh, and the actual address for the new blog is almost as original as the address for this one: jayandhilary.blogspot.com. Don't forget "The Six Stooges", since there are some pretty sweet posts on this blog. You can go back and forth as many times as you like. Isn't that precious? See ya on the other side.

This post is entitled "Stupid Things You Do When Under the Influence". Under the influence of crazy friends, that is. On Mother's Day weekend, I went with some ladies from church on an overnight retreat to Lake Cavanaugh. It was unbelieveable. I always subscribe to the idea that boys never grow up--I mean, my husband is almost 33 years old and he still asks me to pull his finger when he has to pass gas! For Pete's sake! O.k., so after this overnight thing, I have to say that girls don't grow up either. I got to know these ladies on a whole new level. It's funny what a little "time away", a whole lot of junk food, and the late hour can do to a group of grown women . We were "pinching and giggling" (to borrow an expression from my husband who says that's what us girls do when we get together--hey, better that than "farting and bragging", which is what guys do) into the night and morning, too. We didn't get to bed until 2 am or so, which I still haven't recovered from. Anyway, sometime during the evening, we were talking about Girls' Camp and skinny dipping and such and I mentioned the Polar Dip (you know, jumping into a freezing cold lake at 5am? It's a big hit at Girls' Camp). So, in my utter stupidity, I said I would do it. And then my friend, Amy said she would, too. Oh, we yucked it up, laughing and looking macho all night. Talk is cheap, I tell ya. So, as I lay in my sleeping bag, listening to the birdies chirping and trying not to notice the early light slipping in (which signifies morning, obviously, and time to get up--ugh), I recalled my bravado the previous night. "Oh, please don't let Amy remember," was my plea. Unfortunately, Amy remembered. And she said, "Come on. Let's go Polar Dip!" Or some such nonsense. I tried to back out. I wheedled and negotiated and reasoned. And I managed to put her off for most of the morning. Finally, we were all getting ready to go. And I knew Amy wasn't going to let it rest. She was starting to hint that I might be a "chicken" (you know, flapping of arms and "bock, bock, bock). That did it. I had dug my own grave (or water hole, as the case may be). Most everyone left, but there were a few who stuck around to witness our plunge into the lake. And another friend, Emily decided to join in the stupidity. Notice the photos: I refused to skinny dip (never done it and won't ever). We all went in fully-clothed. And I decided since I had to do it, I might as well do a cannonball. Luckily, we got some great photos. I mean, check out the air on my jump! Sweet. I'm telling you--that water was so dang cold! Apparently, the lake was full of glacier run-off. Double sweet. Not to mention the bottom of the lake felt like a slimy nasty stew of some sort. So, I did it. And now I am a celebrity at church. Fame has its price, I guess. Oh, and just so you know....there was one more photo. It was of us coming out of the water. My pants were falling off and there's a nice white chunk of my bum hanging out of the top. Wisdom suggested that I not post this photo (it would probably come back to haunt me). Hope you made it through yet another one of my very lengthy blog posts. Have a great day, all!

My sister Heather was in town at the end of April and she was showing me a few things on Blogger. Can anyone guess from these photos what she might have shown me? It has something to do with the direction of the pictures. It's maybe that the vertical photos are actually vertical and not horizontal. No more cricks in the necks on my blog! So, then Heather tried to help me expand my horizons by changing the background of my blog. Boy, that was frustrating. It turns out that I have a fossilized version of blogger or something and they have since updated it, but for some reason, my blog won't comply. I may just be stuck with a completely "kicked" background on my blog....forever!
Definition of "kicked" (just in case some of you are not familiar with this Jenny-ism--I used "kicked" in a sentence with one of my sister-in-laws this weekend and she looked at me like I was hitchin' a ride on the short yellow. Oops. Another expression): means totally ugly or thrashed-looking. Annnnyway. None of you really care about my blog background. You're here to see photos of my cats (Jenny-ism for "kids" or "spouse" or "whoever") and get the juicy details of the Adams family. Right?

So, Carter is finally playing a sport. He has wanted to for some time, but we have opted not to jump on this fast-moving bandwagon until now. Partially a financial decision and partially an "I-don't-want-to-be-in-the-car-driving-all-over-creation-and-dragging-the-other-kids-around-with-us" thing. I won't go into too many details about the baseball season (I can't believe it's finally almost over!), but I will say that Carter has had fun. His coach is kinda "kicked" (which can also mean "not-too-great")--he seems fairly apathetic and his own son didn't sit on the bench once the whole season. Also, I can't lie--it's been a sacrifice because it seems like our whole lives have revolved around games and practices. I have one big question: HOW IN THE WORLD DO PEOPLE MANAGE TO HAVE SEVERAL KIDS IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT SPORTS, OFTEN AT THE SAME TIME???? It seems that family time would have to be affected. In some ways, I wish Carter would have started at an earlier age. But, at the expense of what? Family time is definitely more important. Anyway, he's talking about wanting to do basketball and Avery's showing an interest in soccer....(sigh). Not sure I want to jump right in to "soccer mom". Have you heard how many soccer moms are addicted to stuff...like Red Bull? Yikes. I don't know what it is but whenever I get on this blog I tend to get diarrhea of the mouth (or brain or fingers or whatever, since I'm not in actuality talking to you all). So, baseball's over in a week or so. Here are the stats: Carter is on the Red Sox and so far, they've only won four or five games. But, we're glad for the experience (I think). Thought you'd enjoy these cute photos of my boys. Colby enjoys going to games and practices--an athlete in the making. I don't enjoy taking him, however. Watching the game is almost impossible, since Colby won't stay in one place longer than one minute. I guess that's the way it goes.

I will sign off for tonight. And bore you with more of our recent details tomorrow or the next day or the next month...or whatever. Nightie Night!

Hi. O.k. so I need a little help (some may argue I need a lot of help). What day is it today? I am pretty sure it is presently April 19th. At least, when I went to bed two night ago, it was April 17th. But, then this freaky thing happened. White stuff started falling from the sky. You know, it looked a lot like snow. How could that be? I mean we just had spring break LAST WEEK. I thought I was completely losing it, but...LOOK! Up above! At my photos! I have witnesses! Granted the witnesses happen to be related to me...and it is in their best interests to make their mom look SANE. This is no joke. See the ruler! Sticking out of the snow on our railing! Almost 9 inches! As I walked to the end of the driveway yesterday to get the kids from the bus, it was snowing...and the birds were "tweet-tweet-tweeting" in the trees and an actual bee buzzed past my face. Aren't you guys supposed to be hibernating somewhere? I think this change in weather surprised nature as much as it did me. O.k. now, see the photo of Jay and the girls by our mailbox (reason for photo: we had to raise our mailbox. It was too hard for the lazy mail person to reach down and open the box. Pretty shoddy job, but at least the mail person is happy)? That picture was taken EXACTLY ONE WEEK AGO. Yep. It was 75 degrees last Saturday. We worked in the yard and went to the park. Now, notice the photo of Avery in front of the mailbox. I took that picture an hour ago. I don't know whether to get out the Christmas music or weed the flower beds (oh, wait--the flower beds are covered in SNOW). Not to mention our hot chocolate supply is almost gone. But...although this whole weather thing is rather anti-climatic, the kids have sure loved it. We played in the snow this morning and had a great time. Our last winter fling...in spring. What in tarnation? That's all I gotta say. Oh, and one other thing--Merry Christmas/May Day.

O.k...so I might possibly be blogging a little more often because I have these two sisters, see. They might possibly nag me to post new blogs more frequently than my usual "every-six-months". Basically, my sisters have entered Blog World and one of them in particular, is becoming slowly addicted to it. She said to me yesterday, "You really need to update your blog, cat" (just a funny little name she uses--not sure where she came up with it). Then, she asks me if I've seen hers recently because there's some really "cute" stuff on it, including a video clip of her adorably smiley, bow-headed baby. Whoa--video clip? This blog thing has kicked up to a whole new level. My other sister even has a photo slide show on hers! O.k...so am I the only one living on the outer edge of technology? I'll just go ahead and answer that--YEP. So, I really haven't learned to use this thing (taken the time to learn, more like). So, I am sorry if your neck is cramping from looking at my horizontal photos that should be vertical.

Enough rambling. An explanation is in order for the photos. I don't know what it is but Avery is inevitably attracted to mud, dirt, water, paint, anything that could potentially be messy. Sometimes, I scold her because she isn't the one doing the laundry and the mopping. But, usually, I find it very amusing. I love seeing her have a good time. Anyway, we had a few nice days a month or so ago and we were out in the yard (AHHHH! The mowing season is almost upon us--it's practically at our door! Anyone want to swap yards? Didn't think so). I decided to wash our nasty van because it was....well...nasty. Avery saw bubbly soapy messy water and had a grand time splashing her hands around in it (not to mention flapping bubbles all around in the typical Avery fashion). Colby soon followed (of course). It was great fun watching them.

I also have here Carter at his latest Pinewood Derby. He was so excited about his "skateboard" car. He's had this idea since last year. The Cubmaster in our ward is very handy with wood and tools and such and offered to help Carter out. He had a great time. Jay constructed a "guy" out of that fishing lead weight stuff and it was complete. We were five minutes late to the derby and his car had already raced once...and lost. By the end of the first round, his skateboard was eliminated. Carter was pretty sad (maybe you can tell by his face in the photo). But, when it was all over, he and some of the boys were fooling around racing the cars again on the track. Jay bent the lead guy all the way back so that the weight was more on the back of the car and it started beating everybody! Carter was thrilled. His idea was a success after all. Jay thinks next year for Carter's last Pinewood Derby, he should do a Snickers Bar Car or something. Sweet.

We gave a couple Easter photos, too. Our egg dying kit came with a brown tablet, which the kids all thought was so weird, hence Maia holding a brown Easter egg. Looks revolting, if you ask me. But, eggs are just plain nauseating anyway, unless they're mixed up in a tasty cake or a creme brulee (which I tried for the first time on Easter--my mom (MY mom) was in town for the holiday and whipped it up all nice and tasty like, although we did have a little trouble with the torch). And what's Easter without a chocolate bunny smeared all over the place? Colby really enjoyed mutilating his bunny ("Es yummy," he solemnly said). Sorry the photo is so blurry, but you get the drift.

Two days after Easter, our sweet little Maia Jean turned five. I can't believe how fast time flies! The photo shows her holding her "flower" birthday cake (at her five-year-old check-up, the doctor asked her about her cake. She said it was a flower cake, and he asked, "Was is made with flour or did it have flowers on it?" She just looked at him funny. Oh, and she had three shots and all she did was laugh. The nurse must have thought she was a few crayons short of a box.) Anyway, her party was fun. She had a few of her little girl friends over and they had a egg hunt in the yard and played and ate, etc. Also, I didn't have to plan any games this year (frankly, I'm a little burned out--I thought I would've recovered from all of our "holiday season" birthdays by now, but...no).

I think I got it all. How was that, my sisters? Satisfy your blog tooth? At least for today. I want you to know that Colby and Maia are watching "Elmo's World"--I used up valuable time to type this post. I could've been cleaning or something. Ugh.

Once I figure out the video thing, maybe (notice I said "maybe") I'll try to catch Colby saying a prayer. It is very entertaining, as is everything he does. Hope you are all doing well. "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!" Oh, gotta go--my bus is here.

Hello? Is anyone there? O.k... so you all probably thought I had completely given up on this blog. My last post was in August--almost six months ago! Just say it. I am completely pathetic. Life is busy, but hey--it's busy for everyone. I was talking to a dear friend of mine on the phone the other day and she told me she finally started a blog. I decided I needed to make some time to update everyone on how things are going. Don't get your hopes up--I may not post again for another six months, but I'll try to do better.

Kids change so much in six months. I know you all received our Christmas letter which pretty much summed up 2007. Carter is still excelling in school--we are filling out paperwork to apply for the "Highly Capable Program" at his elementary school. The testing is in March, so we will see. He is, as I speak (or type or whatever), trying out for baseball. We finally decided he needed to do something. The last thing we need is a social recluse! He has been begging to play for some time. I am very excited for him (not so excited about hauling everyone around to practices and games). Sigh. The extents to which we go for our kids. The picture I've included was taken at Carter's recent Cub Scout Space Derby He is still really enjoying the scouting program.

Avery is finally overcoming many of the fears she's been dealing with at school. She is happy and a wonderful student. She is a great reader and is starting to read chapter books. She recently lost her first tooth, which she was very excited about, as can be seen from the picture. Her other front-bottom tooth is loose, too. Oh, to be a kid again and be overjoyed by the simplicities of life! Avery really wants to do gymnastics. We told her, "Carter first". Actually, we said we'd see about this summer maybe.

Maia is still her sweet/spicy self. She and I have enjoyed having time together during Colby's naps. We have been doing "letter-of-the-alphabet" projects on a weekly basis. I can't believe she will be five in March! She is very excited for Kindergarten and I have no doubt she will do well. The picture included in the blog was taken during a family trip to the zoo recently.

So, did I say kids change a lot over a six-month period? O.k. that's usually true. But, Colby...he's still as curiously-destructive as ever! But is he ever hilarious! Sometimes, I don't know whether to laugh or cry with that crazy cat. The other day, he busted a huge grumpy (that's yet another way of saying, "B.M") in the bathtub. Maia started shrieking and freaking out, so of course, I removed the children and the bath toys and scrubbed the tub down with bleach. While I was doing this, Colby got into my Sanctum, the Holy of Holies--the Craft Room (where I keep all of my scrapbook stuff, etc.), and proceeded to PEE on the floor. Then, after we all showered together. I put a shirt on him and ran to get a diaper. He climbed up into Carter's canvas chair and PEED again, soaking the chair and his clean shirt. I think he does these things to spite me (ha). He is talking amazingly well and he even has a very favorite song. Nearly every morning, he comes downstairs and says, "Mommy! Hed in um game!" (which means, "Head in the Game"--it's a basketball song from the huge teeny-bopper success, "HIgh School Musical"). He grabs his little basketball and starts running like a maniac all around the bonus room. I could write volumes about my fourth child. But, I'll end with one last, very cute thing. At bedtime, he insists on giving(and getting) kisses. But he's very particular. We have to kiss him through the spaces in the head board of this crib. It's very endearing.

Last week, it snowed here, which is why I included the snow photos. This was Colby's first time really out in the snow. He had mixed feelings about it, until he discovered you could eat the snow, and then he was happy as a clam. We had a great time sledding down our gravel driveway. I knew there were some bonuses for living in the styx!

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well as 2008 moves forward. And I hope this very lengthy blog entry was enough to satisfy some of you. I will try to do better. I will. It's hard enough keeping up on the scrapbooks I keep--sheesh! Bye-Bye.

I just have less and less time to keep up with this blog. I truly do admire those people who can keep it up, but I've found I can't do this and keep up a scrapbook and exercise and clean my house and mow this jungle we call a "yard" and put food on the table and play with my kids and keep Colby from dying an early death (yes, he still has an appetite for the inedible. Not to mention, an urge to climb on top of things). There are, sadly, only 24 hours in a day (sigh). I'll just add a blog here and a blog there.

Anyway, summer is in full swing. I can't believe it's already August! The first half of the summer we were extremely busy because we were out of town. Jay and I were a Ma and Pa couple for our stake's youth Pioneer Trek for church at the end of June. It was in Eastern Washington and boy, was it warm! We were dressed in full pioneer garb and we ended up walking for about 12 miles with our youth. They were pushing and pulling handcarts (we weren't supposed to help). The whole thing lasted four days and it was very difficult, but wonderful (and nostalgic--Jay and I met on a Pioneer Trek in 1992, after all). We had 11 kids in our group and they were fabulous. It truly gave me hope to see how strong the rising generation can be (they're not all going to heck in a handbasket--phew!). I wish I had some pictures--I'm still hoping to get a hold of some I can upload to the blog.

Moving on...A few days after we got home from Trek, we left for two weeks in Arizona to visit my family (well, Jay only stayed one--I have discovered he can't do without me and I'm not sure I will ever be able to leave him again. What a big baby! Ha!) I know what you're thinking--"Why would anyone in their right mind go to Arizona in the summer?" I'm not sure I had command of all of my mental facilities when I bought the plane tickets. It was 12o degrees almost everyday! Here's the next question: "Who in their right mind would live there?" That's the question I would like an answer to. My family is absolutely nutters! Anyway, most of the pictures I posted were taken in AZ. There's my mom with Maia and Carter in their backyard pool (which we spent a lot of time in). The kids loved it! Then, there's Colby soaking wet in his clothes at a water playground we went to in Tempe. He loved all of the fun puddles and jets of water. We were also able to enjoy my dad's fabulous talent for barbequeing. One night, he made baby back ribs, which were truly delish. The kids really liked them. Avery pretty much nibbled her's to the bone, with nothing to spare. She also enjoyed the ribs because she could get really messy! Maia said, after that meal, "Grandpa sure makes tasty meats!" I'd have to agree there. Another treat awaiting us in the desert was two new additions to the Lewis family. My youngest sister, Heather, had a baby on July 1st--they named him Landon. Then, on July 4th (the day we arrived), my other sister, Jenny had her baby, whom they named Elliana (they call her "Ellie"). They are so adorable, but look nothing alike. They look like their dads!

The last picture is from our 10-year wedding anniversary date. My turn to plan. We did a "Dr. Seuss" theme. Here we are, dressed up like Thing 1 and Thing 2 from "The Cat in the Hat". And, yes, we are, believe it or not, grown-ups. The grand finale to the date was a hot air balloon ride, which we never ended up taking because the weather was sorta crummy. I am determined to do it before the summer is over! I'll post pictures of that one (I hope).

We are having a great summer, but it's going too quickly. My brother, Ryan gets married next week here in the Seattle area, so all of the fam will be here. Carter has scout day camp and we plan on going to the Adams Family cabin for a visit. There are definitely things to do. Before we know it, it'll be "back to school." I hope you are all having a wonderful summer and keeping cool.