Don't Ask How Old He Is.

Hello Stott family & friends!

I have finished almost all my freelance work & took a WHOLE WEEK off with no projects. It was amazing. But also amazing because my time management skillz go away as soon as the pressure is off. I'm re-doing my board book proposal this week so we can submit it to some new publishers all re-vamped & pretty, so hopefully that will help me focus & stay off of hulu.com watching old "Buffy The Vamplire Slayer" episodes and "Daily Show" clips. (Also, I finished the last 10 episodes of Battlestar Galactica, so maybe that will help me focus a little better... You know, since I know what happens to Starbuck & what that whole "Opera House" thing was about)

My question posed to you, dear family, is why Ella will let her preschool teacher do THIS to her hair....



...and yet she will barely let me BRUSH it? (See her mocking me with her playful wink below. "Ha ha Mom! Miss Valerie is amazing! Too bad for you! Ha ha!"



We love daylight savings. Look at this. Ella can give her dad attitude in the backyard before dinner!



And Gretchen can demand to be pushed on the swing some more. (Look at that face, can you deny her love?)



Friday was Colby's birthday. We went to eat some delicious chinese food. Ella was astoundingly capable with her chop sticks. So was Auntie Krista. But dude, Ella ate noodles with those sticks. I don't think I could do that.



Noodles?



(Note the vintage necklace used to accessorize her Arsenal uniform. You know, cause nothing says, "Football" like a little Doris-Day-Bling.)



Oh Grandpa, we like sitting next to you. You give us our OWN PLATE.



Happy Birthday Colby! Here's to shocking your classmates even MORE with your advanced age. (Dude, you're HOW old?!?)



Brave Anita sampling the authentic chinese Dreyer's Ice Cream.




Cloud of smoke in livingroom after blowing out all the candles we had (note, it was not the correct amount. But the cake was from scratch. Does that make up for it?)



And lastly this week, Ella did my hair. Tah duh! Maybe I should go see Miss Valerie.



So what have you been up to?

Utah Stott Fam

So I decided to post a blog for the Utah Stott side since my parents don't seem to be too Blog/ computer savvy. So here it is.
Mom and Dad Stott are ageing every day and adding another grand child every month. Just kidding. Dad is probably getting ready to start planting flowers and take care of his beautiful yard. Mom is probably already growing tons of vegetables and greens in her green house and prepping the garden for summer. Alicia and Koby Anderson will be welcoming their second daughter, the third addition to their already oh so cute family,. She is expected to join our clan Aug 1st!! So excited!! Devin and Kira are the proud owners of their first home and are doing great. They now have one boy and two cute little girls (Our family likes to follow in patterns). Salenah and little Xander are doing great. I'm just waiting until she has two more girls. Daniel will be graduating from high school this year and is taking a special computer course through a college. Way to go Daniel!! I'm gonna make sure we have a party for that so just keep the heads up fam. Landon is 13 , I think,. That's really bad but I cant remember. He's following the other trend in our family and sprouting up past his older sisters and catching up to Daniels height. Katrina , me, is just working in St. George and enjoying the sun. 80 degrees down here!! I'm getting ready to go into midwifery and a little nervous but excited. I'll be glad when I can start doing something I really love. I'm missing my family, nieces and nephews, and so excited to go up and visit for Easter.
Well that's it!! Maybe we'll get a family photo soon so everyone can see , hint hint,.
Love you all!!


Devin and Lexie ,she's a daddies girl,.

Brigg, Alicia and Kalie opening their presents, Koby

Grandpa and Lexie

Grandma putting Lexie's new tutu on

Lexie, Katrina, Kallie

"She's Bringing WHAT Back?!?" Or "The Sexagenarian"

Here's a little gem we caught on tape last week:





And it was a very hard secret-keeping week for us. We threw a surprise party for the Most Awesome Mother In Law on Friday. I thought I blew it & gave the surprise away multiple times, but she *claims* she didn't suspect a thing. (My cover story for the large amounts of soda, chips & BBQ supplies was that we were having a "Twilight Release" party with a few friends on Saturday....).

In our preparation for the party, I discovered where Ella gets this face:



Here's Anita. See Colby? I told you she took after your side of the family!



Angel had the brilliant idea to make shirts. At first we were just going to have them say "Sexagenarian". Then it was brought up that some people might not know what "Sexagenarian" means. So Shay suggested this addition:




Ella didn't find out that all her Stott cousins were going to be in town until I was sure she wouldn't run into Grandma again that day. She snuck out of gym class to confirm that her cousins were indeed on their way. And then asked me about 100 more times in the next 2 hours.

The party was awesome. There was twister (thoughtfully set up by small children directly in front of the main entrance...)



There were 59.25 green balloons (one casualty on the way back from the party shop).



There were small children trying to run off with bunches of balloons...



There were four generations in one room!



And Uncle Tyler made "Pin The Beehive On Mom". So fun. SO FUN!







The next day we decided to do something fun. And whats more fun than taking small children to a casino, right? They loved it.





Right now the Utah Stott Contingency are on their way back home. We hope they're driving safely and that the babies are sleeping. The whole way. (We can dream, right?!?)

Thanks for a fun weekend family!!! And extra special super thanks to Amber for doing most the work. GOOD JOB AMBER!

OMG, Angel Learned How To Blog

I'm not clever as Apryl, so you'll just get pictures.



Here's Grandma holding the two babies. Awwwwww....

So, I guess I should post a few pictures from Skye and Kait's Blessing.

Virginia City? Nah...

We didn't get out too much this week. Mommy had lots and lots and LOTS of work to do. In fact, she still does. But we still have a few treasured moments to share with y'all.

We met Amber's new beau, Dan, last week. He came for family dinner. We tried not to scare him too much. Official Family Opinion: BIG STAMP OF APPROVAL. (This may or may not have anything to do with the fancy cupcakes he brought with him. See Gretchen enjoying the red velvet/roadrash flavor)



On Wednesday Ella picked out an especially fabulous outfit for preschool. Her teacher Valerie's comment, "I can't wait to see what kind of kid she is in High School". One thing for certain, no one will tell HER how to dress...



No comment for this picture, just sums up Gretchen. Adorably annoying, especially when tired.



Our dear old friend Nate came in town to watch some basketball games. (If you came to our wedding 100 years ago, you might remember that he was Colby's best man.) We celebrated his arrival yesterday by dragging the kids to Virginia City. Gretchen was very sad on the way up, probably thinking, "Oh crap, are we going to be stuck in this #$*@ car for another 8 hours?" Luckily it was only 30 minutes. But that was enough. Let me tell you, that was enough.



On the way back down the mountain we bribed her with this fabulous sucker. Ella picked it out at the tourist-trap-ye-olde-candy-shoppe & kindly shared it with her screaming sister. Then she documented her kindness by shooting this photo. Thanks Ella!




And while she had the camera, she got some other fabulous shots...







And, you may ask, what did Gretchen learn to do this week????



Yup, I left her watching the tub fill with water. And returned to find her enjoying the water. Her favorite thing to do is dunk washcloths in & suck them dry. Totally gross, I know. I try to keep it narrowed down to "clean" washcloths (you know, the kind that aren't totally stiff. Not the kind that keep their shape when you pick them up...)

So that's our week. What about you?