Honoring a Friend

Happy Birthday Molly!!
(tomorrow...it's almost Wednesday my time)

Doesn't it look like we have the same color eyes?

If there is a definition for the perfect friend, you would have to go to Molly Lawson in the dictionary. I remember the first time I really met her. I did see her at sports stuff because we were rival Junior Highs and were in all three sports together (volleyball, basketball, and track), but I didn't actually meet her until late in my 8th grade year. It was during a school exchange at Sabin Middle School for all the Student Government kids at my Junior High. (Go Russell Raiders!) Anyway, I was paired up with Doug Wilson (who ended up being the Student Body President of my high school and good mutual friend of ours) and he introduced me to his friend, Molly. If you know Molly you can just hear her say, "Hi! I'm Molly! Nice to meet you!" with vim and vigor and a real bounce in her voice. I LOVE to hear her talk. And you really knew she meant every word.

Then, about 6 months later, I saw her again at the first sports tryout at my new high school. (Go Doherty Spartans!) We would then be inseparable. We ended up being in most of our freshman classes together and then wanted to be locker partners the following year. We lived at each other's homes and we really knew how to throw a party. Here are a list of all the school sponsored activities that we were in together: Freshman volleyball, Freshman basketball, Freshman choir, JV Volleyball, Varsity Volleyball, Varsity Tennis, National Honors Society, B-9 Task Force, numerous class projects, community service projects, dances ... I bet you there were more. Weren't there even a few made up clubs that we were in? :) ... Something about lights ... and turning on and off??? I think it was called the "Sophomore Boys Suck" club.

She was one of my bridesmaids, I was one of her bridesmaids. The sad part is, it's almost exhausting to pick up the phone to try to call her because I know I would want to talk to her for HOURS! We even played in an outdoor volleyball tournament together 8 weeks after having my first baby and even camped overnight near Steamboat! She even helped name that first baby.

Sometimes I really have to think what things I have done to be a good friend to her and it makes me sorta sad. . . Oh! I beat up boys for her! (Now that's friendship!) I threw her a "Happy 11th Day." (11 was my favorite number... long story) I went to ring dance at the Air Force Academy with her boyfriend's best friend. (Now that's love!) I backed into her BRAND NEW car. Eagle Talon, Gold. (wait, that was a BAD thing. Again. Sorry.) I..... can't think of any more. Pretty sad, huh?

She will always be my "best friend in high school." I really don't deserve her.

Molly Lawson: The Perfect Lifelong Friend.

She will remember your birthday, anniversary, Easter, Christmas, the 1st time you met (and maybe even what you were wearing), and send a card. Will forgive you instantly and forget your imperfections. Will cover for you and put up with your messy locker. Will tell you nice things about you, but will be honest too. Will find you dates (or was that her mother?) and make you laugh (a person slipping on a rotten banana peel in real life is truly a "laugh-until-you-pee-your-pants" experience) and is definitely beautiful inside & out. She is a person you don't deserve but happily wants to continue a friendship. . . for life!

Confession: When people got to know us, they were actually shocked that Molly wasn't a Mormon and I was. (hey!!) And we always had a dream of performing Grease. She would be Sandra (of course) and I would be Rizzo. Or was that JP's dream... :) Though we did go and see Grease performed. I was jaywalking and trying to get Molly to do the same, (good friend, huh?) she finally relented AS CARS WERE NOW COMING and ran screaming from one sidewalk to the other. Molly, you need to run BEFORE they start coming. I tried to teach her my evil ways, but I could never rub off on her. wink wink.

She's just awesome.

My Comments

There are many times where the blogs of my friends or family perk a memory of mine and I type them on their comments, but I also want to keep that memory, so I copy and pasted a few of them and kept them here as a journal entry.

2-19-09
To Emily H. - Oh Ben cracks me up! They still give shots in his legs? You know what that reminds me of?? (for some strange reason.) When I was pregnant with Maleia (forever ago, huh?) and Haley yelled that she needed to go potty RIGHT NOW and I slipped running up your hardwood stairs while holding her. Good thing Haley's head broke the fall... poor thing. She still made it to the potty! :) And ditto on that Cinnamon roll recipe. I made it a while ago and can't make it quite like my future Catering Hero, Emily.

2-22-09
To Allie Hardy - Wow, lots of things going on! Moving to Dallas! Cool. Your baby's First talk in Primary. cool. I like that halfway through I hear a little "the end" in the background. Was that the little audience? :) heeheee! Dylan starts yelling "AYYYYE-men!" if the prayer gets a little long.

2-24-09
To The Kane Family - Awwwww. How sweet! I knew it was love when Brandon took me to the Washburn reunion and we got to shoot their guns. I love the Washburns. :) And I am way too jealous that Brooke allows a gun in the home. . . my Chapman won't let me have one.

2-26-09
To Lindsay B. - For some reason we were always pregnant together! :) Weird water I guess. Then there was many a playgroup at the park... oh and TRYING to play basketball at the church with all of our kids running around crazy, no... PSYCHO!! and us all trying to get our game on. What fun times, huh?

3-13-09
To Ashley C.- I thought you might appreciate that I just bought matching clothes for Easter on OldNavy.com and Target.com. Even B let me/helped me pick them out. Okay, so I wanted the girls in this bright yellow and I asked him if he'd wear a light yellow. He kinda gave me "that look." Like, There is no way in h-e-double hockey sticks that you will put me in yellow. So he said "what about brown?"... I vetoed that bc it wasn't "springy" enough for me and reminds me too much of a banana. So I said what about bright orange?? He was cool until he saw the selections... Not so much. So then HE suggested a navy blue. And I finally relented and bought some navy blue polos to go with our bright yellow shirts. We shall see... We might have to go back to brown. But I, like you, enjoy the somewhat matchy matchy pictures and low and behold B has either just relented and supported it OR he's just humoring me (not bad first two choices) OR he actually likes it too. He (don't tell him I told you this) will even match the kids or me when we go to church or go out somewhere and tell me what he did. :) Doesn't that just make you smile? What a great hubby. OR he secretly hates it and is just humoring me. Either way, he used to roll his eyes and grumble about it. :) So it is nice to know that I have a sister-in-law that shares my love for a good family picture!!

3-15-09

To Brooke A. -THAT CUTE BABY SMILE JUST CAUGHT ME BY SURPRISE!!! I want another baby Right. Now. Now now now. C'mon. Now! :) Okay, maybe next year is best. Dang it.

3-15-09

To Elizabeth H. - One of my favorite BYU basketball watching experience was when B and I were three rows down and a little to the left of Keith and Jake one game but didn't know it until a bad call was made and then I hear this: "C'mon, Bart! (I don't remember the name, but it was LOUD and monosyllabic. Could've been Bert.) You can do better than that! That's a bad call and you know it!" Loud, firm, and oh so true. :) I then yell, "Yeah! Listen to my uncle!" And then he makes eye contact, smiles, points, winks, and continues watching the game. I love that uncle Keith. I love BYU. I love you guys too!

3-16-09
To Molly C. - And this is normal with boys?? I am so not ready for my 18 month to be walking that close to the fire!!!! I remember going to your house and Haley rough housing a little with Kai and saying, "hey now. Play nice" And James runs into the room and tosses Kai 10 feet onto the couch. Kai giggles, rolls off the couch and runs at him at full speed and blows him over. James picks him up again, and throws Kai up in the air ten feet and THEN throws him back onto the couch. Totally laughing. My mouth was dropped and both of my girls clung to my legs. Scared. :) Man I love having boys!

3-24-09
To Emily H. - I'm praying for a great delivery INSIDE the hospital with plenty of time to get an epidural if you so wish. Also, I am thinking how beautiful that pic is below of you sleeping... the shoes make me laugh for some reason. Oh yeah! It reminds me when I needed B to take my shoes off (those that are tied anyway) when I'm 8+months pregnant and if he even smirked I wanted to give him a little kick! :) You don't just look great you look BEAUTIFULLY FABULOUS!

3-26-09

To Megan H. - Remember when we would hike to school together in 2-3 feet of snow? Did we actually eventually make it to school those days?? Darn Colorado and their swift snow removal!! We NEVER got snow days until the 8-10 foot snow drifts that prevented us from getting out any of the doors in our house... which was a bummer becuase we couldn't even go outside to enjoy the snow day!! Those were the days... wanna come over to play?

3-27-09

Kim M. -
I will pray extra hard tonight for your IVF procedure!! Good luck! These tykes really are worth it and I would do the same thing you are doing... despite the little girlie attitudes and all the poopy diapers.

4-10-09
Shelly B. - I laughed out loud when I saw that belly shot of London. Congrats on the BOY!!! That is so fun. Hope Ty gets home safe and that you have a very Happy Easter. And don't you worry. I also have been the one with a camera at embarrassing times for my family... like the Airport potty where Haley lost a tooth!! :)

4-16-09
Jamie R. - I loved the boxcar children and babysitters club and encyclopedia brown. Had every one of those books. I love the smell of gasoline bc is reminds me of motorcycling and boating with my family. Call me crazy.

4-21-09

Lydia S. - Go Jack! At least yours wasn't the one crying in the middle of the field bc someone stepped on a flower...

4-23-09

Lizbeth C. - That is so brave! Way to go moving back to UT to get his MBA. Brandon is thinking about this too... we'll see if we have the cajones. Was that a cuss word to anyone? I hope not. GOOOOOOOO Cougars!! And thanks for being such a good example of faith, because we all know you have to have a lot to do that...with three kids. We'll get there eventually. Congrats on selling the house!

4-25-09
Marianne M. - I saw Dylan sucking on a sucker and I asked him where he got it. Maleia chimed in, "on the floor right there!" We were in a grocery store right near the meat department. It took me .14 seconds to get it out of his mouth. Needless to say I had to buy him a new sucker when we got to the front. Mean mom. :) The thing is, he probably already sucked off the layer of germs that were on that thing. ew.

The only reason why I posted them today was because on my "edit posts" page, it was at the bottom of the page, so there will be more of these... every time it ends up at the bottom on my "edit posts" page. Stay tuned!

I'm a big kid now!

Dylan feeding Keesha la Feesha
(our Beta fish that I once again bought the week before pet week at preschool.)

Big kid moment:

Today I just realized that Dylan can stand on my big step stool from Ikea and wash his hands. Easily even. He doesn't even have to stretch and reach or anything!! When did that happen? I have a love/hate relationship with these moments since he could have been washing his hands for a while now without me having to hold him at the same time. It's sad to see him grow up sometimes, but exciting to know he can do new things.

(Just so you know, I have a post ready for our Venice trip, but I thought three downer posts in a row is just about too much to handle. Yes, it was that bad. Beautiful place, bad vacation. I'm over it. Life goes on. Oh and I'll make sure to post some really good pictures. Oh wait, our Canon Rebel was stolen on said vacation. Nevermind.)

World Blogging Drama: On to other things, I want to talk about the blogging world. The blogging world is a HUGE if people haven't figured this out and you can totally be a different person on your blog and no one could know. Scary huh? What if I just lied that I went to Venice and lied that our big camera was stolen so I didn't have to show proof of it? (Well, we still brought our little camera and used it on days that were rainy, so that will help my proof. And it really was stolen. Promise. wink wink.) But who knows??!! It's one thing to lie to someone's face, but then there is another to lie on a blog. It's way too easy! I have noticed this on few blogs lately and it's just nuts.

http://blog.cjanerun.com/2009/04/copy-cats-out-of-bag.html (for example.)

Why deceive? This is more or less a journal for me (and I know some people use the blogging world for many other things) but if you are writing about your life why wouldn't you want to be honest to show your kids what your life was really like? I love many MANY of my friends' blogs who tell it how it is. They give the good with the bad. The ups and downs. And I LOVE that when I have my downs, people are there to mourn with me and give comfort. What a great life, right?

But then I don't get the mocking blogs of a "fake life," sure, it's funny at times, but why pass it off as your own or put down a culture just because they do have a bright perspective? Deceiving people should not be a talent. I get "writing for writing sake" or "storytelling." Just don't pass it on as true.

Then there are the blogs that totally plagerize without giving credit where credit is due. Sad. Then there are the ones that just make up stuff to make their life more interesting. Even sadder. But then you also have to be careful because it is so much easier to be mean and open when writing on your blog, or in my case, sometimes even commenting. Tread carefully, mindfully, and don't believe all that you read. And if you don't like it, stop reading it.

So for all those who read. You get ME. The Monique Chapman that you have always known. And though I might have some rather boring and bummer posts sometimes, thank you for just rolling your eyes or giving support and then celebrating the good parts of my life with me too. Thanks for doing the same. The End. I am off my soap box... for today.

And on to another big kid moment:

Yesterday Haley went into the kitchen and made Maleia a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then put crackers and some other snacks in baggies to share on the way to swimming lessons, put them in her lunch bag, and then proceeded to get both of them ready. Swim suits and all! Just because she is thoughtful and kind and she can DO those things. When did this happen again? And to give Haley even more props, she even put the PB & J away and wiped the counter when she was done!!! Now I really know that this is Carrie Chapman's child that got mixed up somehow because more and more every day she reminds me of my sister-in-law, Carrie... just wait for the Venice post. :) Carrie might be mad at me for thinking that.

Don't ask

Here's a quote from Boyd K Packer that I really needed today. 

"Recently, one of our sons was sustained as ward mission leader. His wife told us how thrilled he was with the call. It fits the very heavy demands of his work. He has the missionary spirit and will find good use for his Spanish, which he has kept polished from his missionary days. 

What my son and his wife are doing with their little children transcends anything they could do in the Church or out. No service could be more important to the Lord than the devotion they give to one another and to their little children. And so it is with all our other children. The ultimate end of all activity in the Church centers in the home and the family."   General Conference 2007

This helps, but I'll still take that sub now please. (And for all you non-sports fans. A sub is someone who comes in for someone who is tired or is doing a crappy job.) So don't think the sub is just because I am tired. . . 

It doesn't look good...

Okay, so it looks good in pictures, but not where we are sitting right now...

We are supposed to leave tomorrow for Venice, Italy. Sat, Sun, and Mon looks like rain in Venice. And not just rain, hard rain. Tuesday looks good, so at least we will have one day of sunshine and exploring. Good thing we don't leave until that evening. Two of my kids had fevers today. The other one has a skin infection. It looks like we are going to have a one hour flight, (the shortest ever!) but a one hour bus ride, and a 30 min boat ride until we get to our apartment we are renting. Yikes! haley said, "We will be using 3 different modes of transportation? That's got to be a record!" Church is on the mainland, so who knows how long it will take to get there. I am not complaining, I am just really nervous for this trip. Of course after the fact people tell us that it's not kid friendly or stroller friendly... oh well. We actually looked into changing the days and there is a 90% fee and the flights will cost double to change them. Oh well. If anything we can kick it at the apartment and play together. right? sigh. Ready or not, here we come!

This is supposedly what we rented... I may have to give you after pics.

Can I call a time out? Or get a sub?

There are days like today where I tell B, "Today is not a good day to ask me if I want any more children." Oh. my. goodness!

The low down: We had carpet cleaners come in at 9 AM and a Dr. appointment in the afternoon. Good planning right? I get a call in the morning that said that the cleaners will be an hour late (10 am) and another call that said that I needed to go to the Med Unit before noon if I wanted to see someone today because the doctor has to leave early. (Did I mention that I have a kid with a fever and one with a really bad skin issue?) Dilemma! I call B. We decide to call and ask someone how long it usually takes to clean the carpets, so I call one of our best friends here, Holly, and she said that they take at least 2 hours. Blast. But that she would come and sit at the house while I went to the Doctor. God bless Holly. There are mansions in Heaven for people like her. She will live next door to Valerie Fillmore I am sure.

I'm trying to get three sick kids ready for the day, put the car seats back into the car from cleaning it the night before, and trying to talk on the phone to coordinate everything all at the same time. Holly comes down and I run into another contractor who needs to measure some of my windows for the screens... I have been waiting forever for someone to do this, so I know it's now or never. But why does it have to be now? I tell him what needs to be done. I leave.

I get 5 min. down the road when Maleia throws up. Everywhere. Poor Maleia. (Did I mention we just cleaned the car?) At the same time B calls to confirm our appointment and Holly calls bc the contractor for the screens is confused. I know this is one of those times when I could have cried. But it takes a LOT for me to cry. I was really surprised that I didn't. I strip Maleia down. I find some bonus clothes in the back and in my bag. And we are off again. Dylan starts crying because he poked himself in the eye with his car. Poor guy. He's crying and yelling, "Oweeeee! Eye eye eye. Oweeee!" Haley is sad because the bumpy roads are hurting the place where she needs medical attention. Then I get stuck in traffic going through the tunnel toward the Lanchid Bridge and come to a standstill. I can't reach Dylan to help him get the cup of water that is wedged in between the side door and the seat, so I get out of the car, open his door, give him the water and a snack, then totally biff it on some loose gravel.

Am I having fun yet? To make a long story a little shorter, (is that even possible for me?) B met me at the Med Unit with my sad sad kids, Maleia thows up again, but Maleia no longer has a fever. The nurse said that it was the gunk you get from allergies in her belly and that she will be fine. We get our medicine for 'allergies' and cream for poor Haley, and we get home to piles of stuff in the kitchen from the carpet cleaners. We then decide to take Holly and her daughter Jenny to get some lunch bc my kitchen was out of order and my daughter just has 'allergies.' Right? I get them something as healthy as I could and notice that Dylan now has a fever! Allergies my eye!

We take everything to go and head back home for naps and packing for our trip that we found out that we cannot cancel... we would forfeit all money and opportunity. We will see what we decide tomorrow...

Oh heavens.

Vienna Zoo

Since it is Spring Break and many normal people go on vacation during this time, my preschool was down to 3 kids. So I decided to cancel preschool this week and take some friends up on the offer to visit the Vienna Zoo 2 1/2 hours away together. Are we glad we did? Absolutely! There were 7 moms and 16 kids. It pays to go to Playgroup and be spontaneous.

Does this remind anyone of a DC Cherry Blossom trip we took?

Anyway, we had a great time. Though I think if the men were there, they would have thought differently. Not that they are wussy, just a little less used to big groups of kids without much of an agenda. We were at the Zoo for 4 hours and in the car for 7. Vienna is still my favorite city to visit... so far.

The story:

I woke up at 7:45am yesterday. Pushed snooze a few times and finally got up at 8. I got ready and then proceeded to drag my kids out of bed. This was the first day that we all woke up before 9 am due to our jet lag and refusal to adjust to the new time. I prepared most things the night before so I was just running around trying to get the last minute things prepared: sandwiches, drinks, stuff in car, feed kids, clothe kids. (Remember I have 3 kids under 5 with a baby. This makes getting ready oh so fun.) The two families coming with me in my car arrived right on time at 9 and I was almost ready. We left at 9:15 and passed up getting our stickers and gas for the car to get to Budors and meet the families at Monica's on time. We made it, convinced another family to come despite their lack of sleep the night before, and left at 10:30 am for Vienna, Austria.

A movie and a show later, we arrive in Vienna and trek to the Zoo. Two kids totally biff it on the gravel and we needed some band-aid time. Maleia and Haley each fell once during the whole trip. That's pretty good in my book. It could have been worse. Poor Katie biffed it three times. I think the average was 1.8 falls each kid.

We saw all the animals. There's always something special seeing these exotic animals up close and personal. It's pretty awesome. There's not much to say about that. I think the highlight was the seeing the seals jump and play and burp over and over again. What is it about bodily functions that gets kids in a total laughing frenzy? My girls both said that this was their favorite part. That and the sleeping Koalas. And the Koalas just sat there. who knew? Dylan was especially excited to see any animals. He even loved seeing the pigeons pecking at the crumbs on the ground.

We went into the jaguar house where there were three jaguars strutting around and while there was actually a quiet moment (with 16 kids, this was quite rare) Dylan piped up and yelled, "meow meow!" And amongst laughter, one little boy said, "awww. Mom, can you lift me up? I can't see the baby one."

I do have to mention our lunch experience. Too bad I don't speak German or this could have been a little more spicy. We are standing in line for food for about 10 minutes and then when we finally get to the front, they said that we needed to switch lines because this line was closed. What? Who does that? So we merge with the line next to us with all the people "happy" to let us. Then a lady walks up the the "closed" window and a guy takes her order. What the? So we quickly moved back and make him take our orders too. Silly Austrians.

Really the whole Zoo experience was fun and the kids loved it. Then we get in our cars at about 4:45 and realize we are going to hit rush hour. Opa! (Hungarian for oops.) We sit in traffic for an hour and finally get out of the city. Then, right before the border of Austria and Hungary, both lanes come to a standstill and we sit there for about 20 minutes. We still have no idea why. Our Prime Minister just resigned, so voting was yesterday which means a lot of protesting at the same time. Who knows if this was the cause?

Thank goodness for McDonald's. We are in the drive through with 3 cars back to back with kids/parents going in and out for the bathroom. Two of us change our babies on the grass median just outside McDonald's. Silly Americans. The thing is, if I were in the States this would be one of the last places I would go, but we don't have many options here. Again, thank goodness for McDonald's.

2 movies and a show later, we are home. At last we make it back around 9pm, but again, I was with some great friends who make traveling fun, so why complain? Extra time with fun people. Darn.

Let's start with one of my favorite shots of Dylan longing to be on that train.
I used Photoshop a TON today. I'm not very good, but it was fun.

Vienna castle.
And this was only their summer home.

The gardens.

An eatery.

THE KIDS. A whole whopping 16 of them.

The moms. :) Notice: still smiling at the end of the day.
Monica, Laura, Me, Mary, Holly, and Heather

The walk to the Zoo. Can't beat it.

MY KIDS

Fierce Jaguar

Crocodile Dundee.

Ellie Samara

Wow. I captured all three facing forward at the same time. They were always on the hunt for animals.

Sweet Maleia telling me that she wants to go and play with the cheetahs. Have fun.

My pink flamingos with the real ones.

The Friends

What more can you ask for than good friends.

Our little monkeys.

Our train full of girls. Oldest to youngest. Isn't just like girls to organize the train?

The family at the "polar bears' playground" as Maleia put it.

I got a lot of pictures of the kids' bums.

I scream, you scream, we all scream/nag/whine (for about an hour) for ice cream.

I just couldn't get over how cute Andrew looked eating his ice cream, finally, all by himself.

The refugees.
This was taken two seconds after Katie fell her 3rd and final time. Maleia and Haley tripped over each other, and Andrew told us he was the most tired ever! The kids were spent after all the fun times.
Maleia asked to go to bed and Haley practically fell asleep brushing her teeth.

It was a bright, sunny day in Vienna.
We missed B since he was at work, but we will definitely make it back with him soon.

I saved the best for last.
This is my favorite picture of the three looking at a penguin.

Easter and more Easter

We had a fun-filled Easter weekend. We were able to go to our Budapest Branch Easter Brunch, the Embassy Easter Party, our own Easter Hunt at home, Church on Sunday, then a Compound Easter Dinner. And yes, I had my camera at the ready all weekend. Lucky you. Though I kick myself for not getting a whole family picture after we were all dressed and hair done in our Easter Best, but these will have to do.

BRANCH EASTER BRUNCH

We happened to be late for the Branch Easter Brunch due to our crazy jet lag, but we made it. Notice Haley still won't let me take our her braids. We compromised and agreed on tonight.

Dylan wasn't too into the hunt. But he was sure into the candy.

We had a fun time at the church for the egg hunt there! We were missing 1/3 of the primary kids. aka Stucki family who happened to be in the Netherlands on vacation. I mean really. You would go there over an Easter egg hunt at the church?

EMBASSY EASTER PARTY

There were quite a few kids who attended. It was really great with lots of food, excellent hosts, an amazing yard to hunt in (the same home where we were able to pick apples. The orchard is in the backyard.) The Embassy Community is really great here.

Maleia and Mimi searching for those last few eggs.

Dylan finding his few eggs. Notice he went past many eggs to find that perfect one. He cracks us up. Look at that hunk right next to him. That is B for those who don't recognize him with that beard he is sporting. Some days I like the beard. Most days I do not.

EASTER MORNING

My kids with their loot. Notice Dylan is still not into the hunt. He found one egg. Sat down, opened it, and ate the candy. He wanted to eat the candy as he went. The skittles he called gum. His sisters felt bad because his basket was empty, so they are the ones who actually gave him those eggs. Those sweet girls.

I think Dylan still has candy in his mouth in this picture. This is the only picture I have that doesn't have colored drool all over his mouth.

Happy Haley!

Magnificent Maleia!

Our family before hair was done. Darn it.

COMPOUND EASTER DINNER

Some of the crew that could make it. There were actually only 4 families out of 9 that made it. Since it is a 3 day weekend for the men and Spring Break for the kids, many people spent this time traveling. We, on the other hand, do not like to take advantage of the breaks and for some reason miss them and just go whenever we can get cheap tickets. Oh well.

Dylan and B on a walk. Stuffed from all the yummy food.

Haley and Mimi. Our first friend we played with here that moved in the same week we need. Her grandma, Di, tends Dylan while I do preschool with Maleia and her friends.

Maleia and Jenny. Best buds in their Sunday best.

I showed this picture to Maleia and she said,
"That's Jenny and me watching out for the tickle monster."