We All Know

But I just had to state it pubically that Chikezie was ROBBED!!! Robbed I tell you! Dave and I are devestated by his kickedoffness. How could this happen Chikez, we voted for you dawg! And now I have to say we are both in a depression and will be saddened because we looked forward to your bluegrass funk every week! Sorry dawg! And do you think we could try a write in campaign to AI to see if they will allow us a vote for who we want off every week? Cause pleaazzeeeee Kristy Lee needs to go, and Ramiele, but Kristy is more annoying with her one hand dancing. Check it out cause you will notice it from now on. Anyway, devestated dawg!

AI Week 6

Interesting night. The one thing I will say for all of the contestants is that they generally needed to call their mom and dad and ask them what songs were cool back in the day. Cause I could totally tell most of them had never heard the song they were singing. And some of them, no one had ever heard the song they were singing. Ramiele, I hate to say it but I think it is her time. She is a good singer, but she didn't shine tonight and picking a Heart song is the kiss of death. Why does no one listen to me on this! I just don't like a song with the words "it chills me to the bone". Sorry Ramiele, I think it's bye bye for you this week. Also being first doesn't help. Syesha, no doubt she is a good singer, but with her I really feel it is been there done that. But Whitney and Mariah Carey type singers aren't my thang. Jason Castro, I disagreed with the judges on him a bit. I did totally like his song choice, I thought it was a smart choice for him. But he does need to watch it, and I wouldn't be admitting on tv that I didn't practice enough. It doesn't go over well. I still like his laid back style though. Chikezie, I love this guy. Granted I did not love his Luther rendition tonight, but he is a really good singer. And he seems really talented. He's Dave's pick in case you were wondering. And how can you not TOTALLY love his mom. Cute! Brooke White, oh, I don't know what to say. I really liked her singing tonight, I really liked her song choice and I even liked her arrangement. But her mess up at the beginning worried me. I just thought it was bad to start over. She should have just kept going. Really that's not too professional. Maybe at your grandma's house you can do that. I still love her though and we made sure to throw a lot of votes her way tonight. She seems overall like an awesome talent! Michael Johns, loved it tonight dawg!! He was AWESOME!! By far for me the best of the night. Dave rated him #1 as well. :) Nothing more to say there, but keep it up Michael, I knew it was in you somewhere. Carly Smithson, I have to admit tonight that she is a good singer. But sorry, you are not going to get anymore softness out of me than that. I still don't like her and I noticed tonight she looks angry when she sings. Oh and also, she was really out of tune on the last run, totally agree with you there Randy Dawg! David Archuleta, poor misguided boy..... next time you need to pick a song please contact me. And don't contact whoever it was who wrote a song no one knows but wants people to now know it so they forced you to sing it on American Idol. He is a good singer but I was laughing so hard when Simon said that he could picture him singing with a lot of anamated creatures around him...TOTALLY! We still love you David and we threw a vote your way. We also hope that your girlfriend in the audience dug it and she will let you take her to prom! Kristy Lee...hmm.... when I heard what song she was singing I thought it was the kiss of death. Although she did do a good job, and I think she certainly got the bible belt vote with that one. But.... still don't like her. The whole thing was also dripping with cheese. At least she didn't get off of her stool on the words "I'll gladly stand up" she knew that much. And now I'm sure I'm about to get blasted because obviously it was the coolest thing of all times, but I didn't get David Cook tonight. SORRY DAWGS, step away from flaming me now. But I "wasn't likin it" (said Danny Noriega style). It just didn't make sense to me. Some of it was cool dawg, and he was a good singer....but I didn't like the arrangement. Dave totally disagrees with me cause he loved it. But I even watched it again just to make sure I was right, and I was. Still didn't like it. Now I can admit freely that maybe my opinion is shadowed by my true love of Michael Jackson in the 80's, but I still think it just wasn't good. There you go, my summation. The sad part is I can already hardly wait for next week. Although I guess tomorrow night I can see a few cheesy musical numbers and Ramiele singing Heart again badly, since that is my prediction.

Candy and Eggs O'plenty

We had a super fun easter yesterday! We were able to get lots of candy and I was able to dress my family all matching. Something very important to me, (I try to sneak it in on regular Sundays, but Dave will sometimes catch on and foil my plans. But he did it willingly for me on Easter Sunday! Good guy!) We were able to have a nice dinner with my sister and her husband and my Dad and his new wife Gail. The coolest part for me though was setting the table using my great-grandmother's china. I was able to get it when my Mom passed away and I know that she loved it. It was my Mom's, dad's mother Lita. Anyway, it was just fun because I remember when I was younger and my Mom inherited the china I thought it was the beautiful thing I had seen. Now I have 3 sets of china! My wedding, my great-grandmother's and a mostly full Christmas set. Anyway, enough of china! lol

The kids had a fun time and Will was just super fun to watch this year. Especially cause he LOVES candy. Interesting that you can eat jelly beans with only 6 teeth, all in the front, but somehow Will manages to do it. I threw caution to the wind and let the kids eat whatever they wanted. Also interesting somewhere Matthew got the idea that you need to leave carrots out in your shoe for the Easter bunny and then he will bring you gold coins. I'm not sure how he got this image, but I'm thinking maybe Dave. lol And I think he is confused with Christmas traditions from Holland and the Easter bunny. He didn't seem to mind when the Easter bunny forgot the gold coins and the Easter bunny also really enjoyed the carrots out of the bottom of a stinky shoe! :-) Anyway, I'm grateful again for my beautiful family. And I'm thankful to our Saviour Jesus Christ who we remember on Easter and who died so that we might all live again. And so that I can be with my Mom again forever. What an amazing thing!

AI Week 5

So I wasn't feelin it tonight dawg. Why oh why did they have to do another night of Beatles. Not good! Obviously everyone picked their first choice on week 1, so this was just going to be a night of cast off choices. Hated it! Okay, here we go, Amanda Overmeyer...STOP VOTING FOR HER PEOPLE!! Please, to all the harley people hanging out in bars watching your favorite 50 year old, I mean 24 year old friend, do her a favor and stop voting for her. Enough said. Brooke White, I actually felt uncomfortable just watching it. And why do they stage people on the stairs. It is just cheesy and stupid. Sorry Brooke, I still love you! David Archuleta, you redeemed yourself and I am proud of you. Boy, can that kid sing! I wasn't a fan of the song, but his voice was awesome!! David Cook, totally agreed with Simon. It's like this guy has way to much confidence now from last week. He spent the whole song trying to look sexy, which he is not with his hair. Can't we do a write in campaign to get his hair changed. PLEASE! Not good tonight dawg! Jason Castro, what a nerd, in a good way! That was the weirdest song choice. And I loved Paula's description, like a total polka gone wrong. But somehow he sold the fact that the whole thing was a total joke. Jason, you can stay in the competition dawg, but let us help you grow a small goatee. Kristy Lee, she just needs to go. She is out of her league and we have been there done that. Sorry to say that she is just a second rate version of Carrie Underwood. She's a few years too late. Michael Johns, sorry dawg but you stunk it up BAD tonight! If it was "go home night because you were the worst one for that night", he would be going home. Not sure what the heck he was trying to do with that song. Bad choice of song and bad voice! Ramiele...Dave and I both commented that we could see her singing a Disney princess song in Disneyland. She does a mean karoke. Actually her voice is good, but she has zero stage presence. Poor girl. Syesha, I think she was the best of the night. She had nowhere else to go but up from last week. She was really good tonight, and as always she is a darling girl. Perfect song choice! Chikezie ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! I'm loving this guy. Every week he surprises me. I didn't agree with the judges on him tonight. I thought his arrangement was totally cool and fresh and totally him. I even liked the harmonica. Chikezie knows how to step it up. And every week I am loving his mom! Now for my rant of the night, you know it's coming, Carly Simthson! Don't like this girl. And what is it with people(cause she isn't the only one) that think to change a song up they need to sing completely off tempo!!! It drives me bonkers!!! Just sing the song the way it is written, there is a reson for it, it sounds better!! Keep a 1/2 note a 1/2 note, hold notes where you should hold notes, and an 1/8th note should be an 1/8th note, not an 1/8th note into a 1/2 note. I'm sure you get the picture by now. lol But also, I can think of my fav of all time favs Sarah McLachlan who did Blackbird 10 times better, and from whom I'm sure that Carly stole the idea! And stop getting tattoos!!! Why do you need to get a tatoo to "remember" that you were on American Idol or that you are married. Have you ever heard of a journal, or better yet a blog! ;-) Yuck!! Anyway, tonight was my least fav so far. But we all know that Kristy and Ramiele and Amanda need to go so I don't care which order that goes in. And enjoy on the side there the better rendition of Blackbird!

Easter Fun

The Stone's got together on Saturday for Easter fun, and for MANY birthdays! It was a great time and the kids got to be with their cousins. They always have fun playing with them. Thanks to Helen for preparing an AWESOME dinner. She is one of the best cooks that I know! And thanks to Aunt Kim who put together an awesome Easter egg hunt. She is always really thoughtful and supportive of our kids and it means a lot to us! Here's some pics from the festivities.







Dave's parents gave me this beautiful Swiss coin necklace when we were first married. He's family comes from Switzerland. Dave's family calls it the "Swiss Miss". Anyway, when we wear them on special occasions, Bill will give us a 2 dollar bill!! Pretty cool, but I would wear it even if he didn't. Holly and I were the lucky ones and wore it for his birthday.

Our Disneyland Adventure

I know some of you are wondering why I wasn't around last week. We were in Disneyland! This was our first real family vacation! And boy was it fun and tiring, all at the same time! We were fortunate enough to bring Dave's parents with us (Bill and Helen) and the kids were so excited for them to come! They love being with them and they had an aweomse experience being with their grandparents for 5 days! It's a luxury that you sometimes don't get when you live close to each other. You don't think of spending all that time together.:-) But boy was it fun! I'm sorry that some of these pictures, well most, are out of order, but forgive me I can't deal with bloggers picture format all day here people. And this is really a picture extravaganza so get ready. We were fortunate enough to have Dave cave to the idea of us flying and I am SO grateful for that! The kids were a bit nervous for the flight (well mostly Matthew), but they were okay once we got on the plane. Matthew even got a tour of the cockpit. The pilots were really nice to him! This is us before we walked the 40 miles or so that we walked over the 5 days. We're still fresh here and excited at the entrace of Disney! lol


This is Matthew in Toontown posing with some characters. This is sad because I can't remember their names, but they were fun!
The boys with Mini Mouse, this was a feat to get Matthew to pose with any "girl" character. But he did it with dad.


This is Dave and Matthew on their favorite ride, Buzz Light year. It's kind of like a video game. It's pretty cool, but I eventually got sick of riding it. The boys did not. We were also spoiled at the beginning of the week to be able to walk onto several rides!

Okay this picture and it's partners are out of order but bare with me. Anyway, this may have been the best day of Matthew's entire life! We went to this really cool thing called "Jedi Training". It was a stage show and then you sit your kids in the audience. I skillfully placed Matthew on the front row in his Star Wars t-shirt in the hopes that he would be the chosen few selected to learn the way of the Jedi. They picked about 15 kids and there were TONS there. Anyway, he did get picked and when he did both Dave and I had tears streaming down our faces. You would have thought he was graduating college or something! lol But he got to wear a Jedi cloak and have a light saber. This is one of the final pictures because after they were trained for a few minutes each child either got to fight Vader or Darth Maul. Matthew got to fight Vader. It was SOOO awesome!!! Imagine this event in the mind of a 7 year old boy! Totally priceless! Vader even complimented him on his skills!

Matthew with Captain Hook. Even I have to admit he was kind of scarey! lol

Maren absolutely loved the princesses. Her favorites were Snow White and Cinderella. Mimi was nice enough to buy the kids "autograph books" while we were there and you can get all the characters to sign them. It's something only a grandma would buy, but the kids absolutely loved them!!! Thanks Mimi!

Matthew just hanging out at the entrace to California adventure. He thought this was the perfect photo op and told me to take his picture. lol

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, which I highly recommend! This was the swimming pool there. It was a lot of fun! The kids enjoyed swimming as much as Disenyland itself.
One of Maren's favorite rides were the tea cups. It makes me sick just thinking about it. Only Mimi was brave enough to ride them with her and the only one that could ride them without throwing up afterwards.


Will was in love with the furry characters! He hugged them all and laughed at all of them, it was so cute!
Even Dave got into the spirit! He was only happy because we got to eat at so many buffets! lol


We ran into Alice and the evil Queen of Hearts. Maren wasn't sure what to make of her. She kept talking about her eye brows afterwards.
This is Matthew after his Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich. Do you think any of it got into his stomach?


We went to hear princess story telling and this is Maren before it started. They had this really cool royal looking stage area.
We even got to meet Jack Sparrow!! He seriously looked SO real! I would have gotten in the picture only I knew it wasn't the real Johnny Depp. Otherwise you know I would have been the only one in the picture. Jack Sparrow was awesome though and talked to Matthew a lot about all his questions of "pieces of 8". Don't ask me what it means, but it is very important to pirates I guess.

Matthew fighting Vader.


Maren with Cinderlla, she absolutely loved her!

Will in his pirate Mickey ears! I loved this on him because he totally has the hair for it!

Matthew and Maren in their Mickey hats. It's tradition that you have to get your name sewed onto the back of one of these things. Something you would never let your kid wear normally becomes a treasure after you have been in Disney for a few days. Propaganda!

Us with Goofy at Goofy's Kitchen restuarant.

Maren and Matthew in Toontown!

Dave attempting to take Will on his first ride. He didn't love it. Will pretty much was on meltdown mode for the entire trip. Note to self and all who are friends: never take a baby old enough to walk, but younger than 3 to Disneyland.
Matthew learning the tools of the Jedi.


At the end of the trip Dave's sister Holly was in the Disney area so they met us for dinner! This is Matthew and Maren with their cousins Jill and Dean.
Here's how our kids looked on the drive home from the airport. Do you think they've had enough! lol

All in all it was a wonderful trip! I loved being with my kids and enjoying all the wonders that they experienced! Even though they wore me out I can hardly wait to go on another Disney trip with them again. It really was awesome! What a wonderful life I lead with these beautiful children. As Matthew put it when we first entered Disneyland "this is a really good life". I am so blessed!!