More Russell Blood...

This time it was premeditated, but it's still owchie!

Adam has a few small bumps on his body (besides his many bulging and manly muscles) that have grown over the last few years. They are cysts that are benign, but every few years one will start to get bigger or change color and we start to worry.

The one on his elbow was getting more pronounced and turned purple, so, he headed to the doctor to have it removed. It was a quick procedure in the office and he came home with a few stitches and bruises.



When we had only been married for a short time he had one removed from his face just under his right eye. The amazing thing is that he has miraculous healing powers and rarely gets scars!! (His secret identity is Wolverine **Shh** don't tell anyone.) You can't even tell he had surgery on his face!

So, we had to take pictures before it all healed up and we forget about it.


He has one more on his head and another on his chest. He loves to show them off *snicker* ask him to show you sometime!

Maura went crash!

It's a sad, sad day at the Russell's. I feel terrible! We had a little accident yesterday. Maura climbed up into her stroller and stood on it backwards and fell over smashing her face on the garage floor.

There was a lot of blood and crying. Dallin was a little freaked out. He get's kinda scared when Maura gets hurt-I don't blame him, I get a little freaked myself.

You can see the bruises on her nose, but mostly it's that little dented skin between her upper lip and nose (BNL anyone?) that is all puffy and swolen.



We had our good friend Dorothy (who works in the ER) come over and take a look. We don't think it is broken, but even if it is, there's nothing a doctor would do unless it obstructs her breathing. She can breathe fine, and it's just a little tender today.


The really owchie part is looking underneath her lip...(Dallin did a great photography job) it's all black and bruised. We hope it didn't kill her teeth, but nothing we can do about it...


She's mostly back to her old self today, just a little careful about what she puts in her mouth.

It does change her appearance rather dramatically! Her puffy lip makes her look really different. I sure do hope it goes back to normal!

Recap...without pictures, bummer.

This was a busy week!

Monday: Went to work, did some shopping for the Keller school Carnival, then baseball game for Dallin

Tuesday: Cleaned my own house, did my own shopping, took Dallin to the dentist, spent 4 hours sending email about the carnival.

Wednesday: Worked, picked up garbage cans for the carnival, spent another 4 hours sending email about the carnival, then on to YW activity to make dinner rolls.

Thursday: Did more shopping for the carnival and more last-minute fire extinguishing, baseball game for Dallin.

Friday: Got a massage (ahhhhh), spent another 4 hours emailing about the carnival, picked up tables, coolers, raffle items, cotton candy machines, and various other items to be ready for the next day. Went to bed early!!!

Saturday: Carnival!! We were at the school from 8am-4pm running around like mad trying to make sure we had enough of everything and taking care of all those little things that pop up! I had so many people helping! Thanks tons to my terper friends who helped, my sister and her hubby who covered themselves in cotton candy, neighbors and friends who watched kids and pitched in to help, the PTO board who worked their fannies off and mostly for my awesome hubby who cooked 300 hot dogs and did all the heavy lifting (then came home and mowed the lawn!) he is truly amazing!

Dallin had a great time! There were 5 bounce houses with obstacle courses, a giant rock wall to climb, a dunk tank and about 15 different game booths the teachers ran. Dallin earned some tickets on his own and I told him he could get whatever he wanted. We saw him occasionally, but he mostly ran around and had a blast! After the carnival we asked him what he got with his tickets. "First," he said, "I got a giant pixy stick, then a ring pop, then two cotton candies, and then a soda". "Then my stomach hurt." Ha ha ha-no wonder! He had a terrific time!

The carnival was a huge success! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, we had a great turn out, and earned a lot of money ($3375) for the PTO to use next year.

I get so stressed out before an event trying to remember all the little details, but during the event I love the rushing around and excitement and the fun.

**Whew** Now on to other fun things!

Third Annual Easter Breakfast

This year our breakfast and egg hunt in the park was rained out, so we moved it to the church instead. The breakfast was great and we had a lot of the neighborhood come. It was a great turn out.

Next they sent all the kids away and 'hid' the eggs in the gym. It's really never an egg hunt at the park, more like a race to see who can get the most eggs. The kids really didn't seem to even notice we were in a gym instead of a grassy field!



They took pity on the younger crowd and sent them to the Relief Society room so as to not get trampled by the stampeeding Senior Primary.


Maura found her egg (singular) opened it, ate the contents and was done.

We tried to convince her to pick up more eggs, but she was confused. It's too much like the 'clean up' game mom plays at home and that game is never any fun!

Dallin, on the other hand, filled his to the brim, shared with a few friends and was on a sugar high for the rest of the weekend.

It was awesome!

Tradition! (think Fiddler on the Roof)

Yeah, every year we boil a ton of eggs, dye them crazy colors, then eat egg salad sandwiches, deviled eggs, potato salad, and just plain old boiled eggs for a week.

We don't mess with the store-bought dye. We make our own with boiling water, vinegar and food coloring. You get better colors this way-really interesting ones! Dallin was in charge of the colors,


and of placing them carefully in the color.


Maura was in charge of decorating them with crayons (read eating the crayons and coloring on the counter).


It was great fun. Maura especially liked smashing the eggs and smearing them on the colored counter top.


Daddy's job was to snap a picture or two.


This is one of my favorite traditions. Messy? Yes. Fun? Absolutely!

Easter Treat

It's been a while since Dallin and I made some'ned (Garrett always loved to make som'ned with me) together. So we remedied that this weekend and made some fun Easter treats.

A couple weeks ago I went to a game night with some gals and they had such great treats with chocolate bowls. (The bowls are made by dipping balloons in melted chocolate and when it sets popping the balloons.) I took the idea and put 'peeps' in them making little nests. Dallin thought they were so cute! Seriously, he said; "Mom, those are so cute" in his high-talk-to-babies-voice.


After we were done Dallin thought we should have made them with white chocolate to make it look like they were coming out of eggs instead of sitting in little nests.


They were still delicious.


"Do I have chocolate on my face?" he asks me...har har har. He's just like his father!

*Snifff* Ahhhh!

Sweet Peas are my favorite flowers. I absolutely love the way they smell and they are just cute! I have some that grow by my front door every spring.

Every couple of days I go out and cut myself a bunch to sit on my counter and they smell heavenly! Sadly they are only around for a short time every year.

Yahoooo! The 2008 Russell Reports blog book is finally finished and off to the publisher!

This is how it stacks up: Hardcover image wrap, 368 pages, 818 pictures, total cost $93. WHEW! What a project!

One of my favorite things about doing a blog is at the end of each year I put it all together in a book and publish it. I get a hard copy of the fun and exciting things we've done for the last year.

I'm not a scrapbooker. I tried. I'm really not great at it. I'm more interested in the product than the process (as you will see in my blog books). My books are simple with pictures, captions and stories, and that's about it. No fancy borders, no wild colors, no frilly fonts, just a record of us.

It will be printed and in the mail in the next week. Hurrah!

I love the publisher I use: BLURB and have learned a lot of easy tricks on how to slurp my blog. I can tell you how if you're interested...

Bye, Bye Piggies!

Yep, I did the deed. I chopped off the mullet. She was starting to look a little ragged, so out came the scissors.



Her hair is so fine the rubber bands were breaking it off leaving just a few long ones and a lot of short hairs underneath and on top. So we trimmed it up hoping it will grow out nice and even.

Then into the bath to wash off the stray hairs.

Hair grows back, right?

It does look cute, but I will sure miss those piggies! Hurry up and grow, hair!


*Dallin was the photographer (for most of it)! Didn't he do a terrific job??

It's a Popsicle Day

Yesterday was a popsicle day. We just needed it. Really, there's nothing better than a sticky, stained face to make me smile.

See what I mean?


Mookster enjoying keeping an eye on the boys as they played in water running down the street.


Yep, days like yesterday are for popsicles and playing in the gutter.


Nope, nothing better than that.


Really, I can't think of one thing...

Boys, Baseball and Baby Girl

Among all the craziness that is our life, Baseball has taken center stage! Dallin was lucky enough to get on a team with some good friends and he has really enjoyed it. I'm so glad he just loves the game and isn't too worried if they win or lose. Of course they LOVE to win, but if they lose, they aren't too sad because they always get sno-cones!

Dallin is on a young team and often gets to play center field. I think he gets to play this important position because he is great at catching and can throw really far! The only problem with being in the outfield is that there are so many distractions: birds, ants, butterflies, airplanes...



This picture makes me laugh because he can never keep his shirt tucked in! They don't let you chose sizes, you just get what you get when it comes to uniforms and his is way to big. Every time he is up to bat the umpire stops the game and makes him tuck in his shirt (again) and tie his shoes (again). We are going to have to start doing uniform checks in the dug-out.

Maura and I have enjoyed the great weather while watching his gamess.

We bring our lawn chairs, cool drinks, buy a pretzel or nachos and cheer for the Diamondbacks!!



You know your boy is growing up when the coach requires him to wear important man gear to play baseball. Dallin and daddy had a bonding moment when dad introduced him to the athletic cup (thank heavens for dads).

The first time he wore his cup to practice we picked up a couple other boys and the conversation in the van on the way over sounded something like this:

Dallin; "Hey, I've got my cup on *tap* *tap*, how about you guys?"
"Yep, *tap* *tap*, got mine"
"Me too, *tap* *tap*"

All the way to the field that's what I heard, those boys tapping on their cups and talking-not in quiet voices as girls would do when speaking of undergarments-but in boisterous voices laughing and tapping all the way to the field. I guess it must just be a boy thing.

Yep, boys and their things....It reminds me of Garrett....but that's another story.