M&M's

Too much free time...well maybe! This is our most recent family portrait. I thought is would be fun to post up some fun things about members of the Poulsen family that everyone probably doesn't know about us!

Mark is the oldest and tallest. He is 6'5". He is super normal. Maybe that's because the rest of us have plenty of things to keep his life mixed up! He has mountains of patience when each of his girls are demanding his exclusive attention...all at once. He loves the smell of new shoes. When he got his new running shoes he put them by the side of our bed and mostly just smelled them for a few weeks rather then using them.

I (Maylene) am the second oldest but I am only 5'4". I probably could write an entire book on all the funny things about me! However, I will only include a few that come to mind. I love to eat cereal and sandwiches and if I lived by myself, this is probably all that would be in my fridge or pantry. I like to sleep with lots of pillows and I like to sleep in the middle of the bed. I also LOVE mowing the lawn. At night when Mark is trying to fall asleep, I am often pondering and discussing whatever problems or ideas are floating around in my head. Most of the topics are about science or some abstract theory. I love the Laws of Thermodynamics but I'm not so sure Mark is elated to be talking about them at 10:30 pm...especially when he has to go to work the next day.

Sydney is 3'4" tall and will be 5 years old in July! She wants to be an "ice-cream scoop person" when she grows up and also she wants to ring doorbells. Nothing we say can convince her otherwise. Oh well, maybe she can combine her two passions and sell ice-cream door to door. Sydney spends hours cutting out ponys from her My Little Pony coloring book and coloring them for us. They are all over my house. Every once in awhile we have to decide which ponys to keep and which ones to donate to the recycle bin. Sydney likes to collect stuff. No matter how hard I try to keep her shelves clean they are always covered with sea shells, rocks, leaves, rose petals, unsharpened pencils, bracelets and necklaces, small toys, stickers, trophies, and a large number of other miscellaneous items. She still sleeps with her beloved cow and her "kiki" (her favorite blanket). The world would come to an end if we lost either of these important items. Sydney said she would like to move to South America where all the rides are. After further inquiry into this odd request we figured out she meant Mall of America.

Sophie is nine months old now and weighs in at about 15 lbs. She spends her days getting into things. Her favorite thing to do is pull off the ends of the door stops and put them in her mouth and then tweak the door stop (it makes a great sound). (I am currently working on a plan to permanently adhere those rubber stops to the springs) After she is done with the door stops, she makes sure to stop by the fridge to pull all the magnetic letters off and throw them all over the kitchen. Then it's on to Sydney's craft table to see if there are any delicious crayons to sample. Sophie doesn't like to drink formula or eat baby food...she would rather eat cheerios, bits of cheese, baby fishies, and bananas. She also has a "kiki" she loves and gives big kisses to whenever she sees it! She is good at shrieking to get attention.

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Hard work

A few days ago Sophie and I went to pick out some rock to put on the sides of the house. I had only been home for about a half hour when a huge dump truck left 6 tons of rock on our driveway...blocking it completely. Don't worry, I had parked the car on the street just in case. Sydney was elated when she got home from preschool to find more rocks than all her collections combined! She spent the rest of the day climbing up and and sliding down and hauling small amounts in her sand pail, thus neccesitating several baths that day.
As you can see from the picture, the left side of the house has the air conditioner and there is only a small space to squeeze by with the rock. Not only did the wheelbarrow not fit, but I was the only person small enough to squeeze by with a shovel full of rock. So, good thing I am super strong! I ended up hauling most of the rock from the pile on the driveway....all around back, around the curbing...and dumping it in a pile by the air condintioner. Then I had to shovel it one scoop at a time down the side. It sounds like a lot of work and it was! However, it actually went lots faster than I originally anticipated. I'm sure the neighbors are all fascinated with all the projects I am always undertaking.
I thought I deserved a little spotlight for all the hard work I did. I made Mark take a few pictures of me filling up the wheelbarrow so you can all observe my huge muscles!
Part of our incentive to hurry and clear out the rock pile was due to the fact that we couldn't park the cars in the garage or on the driveway. Just as a side note...our garage is the typical two car AZ garage that really only fits one car and all our stuff. So the Neon just gets parked on the street (of course we always put the CLUB on so it won't get stolen).
Ok...so I didn't do all of it by myself. Mark helped haul several tons of rock after work and actually he did most of the other side of the house. I just had to help rake it even. I'm sure he would have done more if he could have squeezed by the air conditioner but it was just easier for me. Oh well, it has definitely made us appreciate the fact that neither one of us will ever have to do this for a living. Believe me...it is HARD WORK. My muscles are pretty sore.

I am relieved that we were able to complete this project before it starts getting hot. Actually today it has already reached 80 degrees so we are well on our way to sweltering heat.

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Cara...

I was so excited when one of my best friends from college decided to come visit us! Cara was one of my roommates at BYU when I lived at Liberty Square! Since BYU, I obviously moved to Phoenix and Cara has been living in Boston for several years. We usually just chat on Sundays and I'll admit I have been trying to convince her to come visit for a few years now! Sydney hasn't really seen Cara since she was a tiny baby so I was excited when Sydney decided that Cara was her new best friend. She loves Cara! Probably because Cara read her lots of books, took her on bike rides, and played games with her! She was very sad when we dropped Cara off at the airport.
Jilynn and I decided to take Cara to one of our favorite Mexican places for lunch but when we pulled in the parking lot, we discovered that they are closed Sundays and Mondays...so we took her to the next best thing! It's this place called Costa Vida which is pretty much the very same as Cafe Rio in Provo.
We asked Sydney to take some pictures of us...and this one turned out alright. We had to scrunch down of course and she had to stand on a chair. Sydney is so funny when she takes pictures. She'll tell people how to pose and when to smile and whether or not she likes our smiles, etc. You can't help but laugh at this little girl bossing us around.
I'll admit I was a little sad when Cara had to leave. It was so much fun hanging out with her, and she was a super big help with the girls. Sometimes it is so nice to have an extra adult around to either entertain Sydney or help with Sophie! I did my very best to convince Cara to move closer!

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Girls!

Last Friday Sydney had two of her friends over for a playdate. I knew they were going to have a blast because once I had picked all of them up they were all shouting "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BLASTOFF" and then giggling...then they would do it all over again. Sophie was definitely entertained.

We went to this new park kind of by our house and it turned out to be lots of fun. It had this slide with little rollers on it and then this other climbing structure next to the park with climbing ropes and lots of interesting pieces of equipment to play on.



Even though it may seem like all we do around here is kid stuff, sometimes the adults living here have some fun too! Friday night we got together with some of our friends, had a BBQ, sent all the kids upstairs to play, and then we played Rock Band! What can I say...we love that game! Then Saturday morning, Mark and I made a big decision. We decided to get a family pass to LIFETIME Fitness. It has been getting more difficult to find time to work out and juggle all the places we have to be at; so this is a way to get workouts in and spend time together as a family (that doesn't involve wondering aimlessly around Costco). So far we LOVE this gym! And even better the girls love it too. They have two huge swimming pools with waterslides and the water mushrooms and a zero depth entry, perfect for the kids! It is kind of nice to be able to go workout anytime I want without waiting around for a time when Mark is going to be home.

Congratulations to Jim and Melissa on the arrival of Joshua! We are so excited to have a new boy cousin to hang out with all the girls around here!

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Sophie + Bone

A few days ago, I noticed Sophie was crawling around with a bone in her mouth. The bone is Sydney's for her puppy that grows. Anyway, it was so funny. It's almost like she replaced her bink. Then today she found the bone again and popped it in her mouth. She is so silly! (and this usually stays in her mouth for at least 30 minutes at a time)...
So for a quick update, Sophie has been crawling everywhere since the middle of January. She is very curious and quiet and if I leave the room for even a minute she goes off by herself and finds something to get into. Then when I go to find her I have to look all over the house. She is good at hiding in closets, bathrooms, behind furniture, in the laundry room, and really just about anywhere she can escape to. And unlike Sydney who giggles when we play hide-and-seek, Sophie is quiet, so it is much more difficult to locate her. Maybe she needs a LoJack in her diaper or something!

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