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A lovely little scare to end 2011

2012-01-12T21:17:00.002-07:00

A couple of nights before New Year's we were all washing some buckets and putting away a TON of food storage stuff. It was our Christmas gift to ourselves. We had gone out earlier in the day, and didn't get home until later, so of course the kids slept in the car and they were up until after 11 p.m. We seriously have our entire kitchen table and counter STACKED with food, basically it's a giant mess, and makes us look crazy, especially if anyone were to come into our house!

Jenson is being himself running around having fun with his brothers, then he decides he wants something in the pantry, so he climbs up a couple of the shelves, maybe just one. He falls, hurts his side, I turn around to pick him up and comfort him. At the same time Adam and I both say, "He's going!" We usually say that to each other when the kids are about to pass out. All three of the kids do what is called a "breath holding spell." Basically when they feel a strong emotion, like feeling pain, they'll cry, but hold their breath at the same time. You know when you see a kid crying and no sound is coming out? That's what it looks like. When our kids do it, not often, but enough times we've all seen it and know the "normal-ness" of it, we know what to expect. So, they'll get hurt, cry, holds breath, passes out, wakes up, looks around like they have no idea what just happened and then they're fine. Scary the first few times, but all of this happens within 20-30 seconds, if that.

So when Jenson fell and Adam and I said, "he's going," I knew to cradle hold him and just talk to him like we always have. Well this time was different, I have no clue how much time actually passed, but I'm guessing it was more in the few MINUTES not seconds range. He went completely white and was completely limp. I hated seeing that. If I moved my arm to try to scare him awake he would just fall back. I remember thinking how heavy he was feeling. I told Adam we had to call this time. We went back and forth on that for a minute or two, tried splashing water on his face, just trying anything to shock him into waking up. I tried pinching him, rubbing him, asking him about favorite toys, etc. Adam was scared, I was scared, the boys were scared. Lance asked a couple of times, "Is he dead now?" Oh, how awful that was to hear him say that and then I got to thinking, what if this is it? We all have just watched a life go right before us. I couldn't stand the thought of the kids having to see that.

Finally Adam calls 911, the paramedics come in and give him oxygen. At this point I'm guessing he's been out for 5-10 minutes. He kept breathing and had a pulse the whole time, if he didn't I don't know how we would have reacted. After only about a minute of oxygen he finally woke up, just to put his thumb in his mouth, not really suck it, but just to have it there. Then it was like he was asleep for the night. The paramedics asked if he was usually as pale as he was. Since he started waking up and acting irritated that people were around him and I was holding an oxygen mask next to him we all felt so much better. The one paramedic said to the other, "want me to cancel that?" I think they meant life flight, mainly because they were under the impression that he fell and instantly passed out, and I'm sure his age was a factor.

After a few more minutes Jenson was staying more awake, his pupils were fine and he didn't have any odd bumps or bruises, no more than he normally has anyway! The paramedics told us we could wait and take him in tomorrow, we could drive him that night ourselves, or they could take him, but they thought he would be fine. We all agreed that he seemed to be fine, just tired and we'd just stay home, unless anything changed of course.

I'm not sure how much he remembers, but we ask him and he knows he fell and some friends came over to help him, but that might just be because we told him that also. He has acted perfectly fine since then, as if nothing at all happened. So thankful for that! I told Adam I'm glad that I don't know how close we were to losing him, or if we weren't even close. I don't want to know, I'm just glad it turned out the way it did. We were definitely blessed that night (and every day). So thankful for the help we received from the paramedics, our sweet little family, and Heavenly Father. Thank you!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T21:10:00.004-07:00

We had a great New Year's Eve! We did our usual of king crab legs, bacon wrapped sausages, artichoke dip and all of the left over candy from Christmas. Babe only likes the sausages and candy, so I think to make it more of a meal I need to add some steak or something more for him. Even though, everyone but Jenson is a little blurry, I LOVE this picture! We all love New Year's!

Adam said he was going to make Lance work for his own crab this year. He did pretty well, he even found a few good techniques to get the crab out. Tongue out, fork over your knee, and butter drippings all over your shirt!

A funny thing that happened just after midnight has to do with those amazing pregnancy hormones, they're great! I think it was about 12:03, so Adam and I looked on YouTube to see the ball drop. When the crowd started counting down from 10 I could feel all these emotions building up. It was weird, I wondered why, but then saw the ball slowly dropping down. Then 2012 lit up and I lost it! I tried to hold it in, but as a friend put it, "you can't hold it in, then it's the ugly bawling kind." Yeah, that's what it was alright. As if it couldn't get any more ugly, I knew it was so ridiculous to be hanging on to Adam bawling, I started hysterically laughing. So it was something like, "waahh, hahaahaa, waahh, hahaaa!!" I really felt bad for Adam, he didn't understand, which I don't blame him, but to me it just made sense. It hit me like a ton of bricks that 2011 was OVER, never to be had again, there's no going back and having some do overs, seriously, it's done. I can't explain it any more than that, just that it's done and I guess I didn't like it. Now, even today Adam likes to tease me by asking if I'm okay that the hour just passed by and if I'm happy/sad/whatever with that. Haha!

Jenson's 3!

2011-12-31T11:14:00.003-07:00

My oh my, I can't believe how quickly these little ones grow up! Funny, when you're pregnant with them you just can not wait to have them here, then you can't wait for the newborn stage to be over, can't wait until they can eat more solid foods, etc. etc. Each stage with Lance and Adam I couldn't wait until we got to the next one, because the next one was going to be so much MORE fun! They're all fun! I have learned that every stage goes by so quickly and I'm learning to LOVE every bit of every stage. Mostly, the tantrums, eye rolling, and rationalizing, sometimes I could definitely go without! Since Jenson's birthday is so close to Christmas, and he's so young, we usually just have us, a few gifts and some cake! This year, he got a Captain America set, he loves it! He also loves being Spiderman!

I think he was a little afraid of the fire and surprised by the one candle re-lighting! I didn't know I bought trick candles!

Jenson loves pretty much everything, so we did a "theme" of anything BOY. He loves Lego's, superheros, ninjas, guns, monsters, everything boy! So I just made some cupcakes with things we had here. I didn't have any sprinkles or anything, so I washed a few Lego's and put them on the cupcakes! That's my frugalness for the year!

It was the kids' last day of school before Christmas break, so we actually spent a lot of time at the school with the Christmas sing and Adam's class party. I didn't make it to Lance's class party. After all the craziness of hanging out at the school for the first part of the day we came home and just played with the Lego set Grandma got him. He loved it, especially because it came with a dirt bike for the robber to get away!

We love this kid so much! He's such a smarty, funny, teaser, and LOVES being with his brothers and dog Bonnie. He LOVES staying up later, he knows that if he does this he usually ends up sleeping with Mom and Dad, eating popcorn and watching racing videos with Dad on YouTube!

Work Christmas Party 2010

2011-12-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

I'm posting last years Christmas party for work since I didn't get around to doing it and I didn't take any pics of this years party! Last year we couldn't work out any times that would work for everyone so we ended up just doing a double date sort of thing. We went to the Grand America...wow, LOVE that place! I got a steak, and Adam got some lobster. I LOVE that the portions were smaller, so we actually were able to have a little bit of everything. My favorite way to eat, especially when you can't decide!

Adam and I, we had such a fun night. Dressing up and going out on an actual date was so much fun! We always love it and say we should do it more often, but kids, work, finances, and a bunch of other things always come up!

Our good friends and work partners, Jeremy and Julie. They are awesome! Without them (and a few others that weren't there) we wouldn't be where we are today. It's so neat to see that it takes all of our efforts to make things work! Thanks guys!!

I would love for our tree to look like this! Not even close, but we also don't live in a place with marble floors!

This year we went to Market Street, I don't like seafood, but every time I go there, I end up liking it more and more! I even LOVED the shrimp and wish I could go back right now and have some! Unfortunately we missed out on a newer employee, but hopefully we'll get him there next year! It was fun to sit and reminisce about the year, obviously that included some inside jokes, favorite customers and our favorite crazy customers!

I'm so thankful that Adam is such a hard (headed) worker. If he would have listened to me at all, especially in the beginning, we definitely wouldn't be where we are today. I can't imagine how much courage it has taken him to just go with it and make it work. Love him so much for doing so much for us as a couple, family, and business!

Exciting News!

2011-12-01T00:02:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to be having another baby!! This will be our 4th, it hasn't hit me yet of how different it will be with 6 in our home instead of 5. I've known for the longest time that we should have another baby, I would call the kids to dinner, or when I'm sending them to bed, and just doing the hundred other everyday things, I felt like I was missing someone. Sometimes I'd count in my head and go through our names, crazy I know, but it's true! Maybe that means a 4th won't be a huge change, or maybe it means I already have so much! ;) I had an ultrasound a few weeks ago, Adam couldn't be there with me or Jenson this time, so we called him during and put our phone on speaker, funny story about that in a minute! I love this picture of the baby's arm and head, I think the baby is showing off!

Cute little legs all stretched out!

The baby is doing some yoga!

So...after three boys, we are excited to announce we are having.....

...a...

Yes! ANOTHER boy! I must be meant to never have anything nice...or clean! Regardless, we are so very excited to have ALL boys! The newest little guy will be arriving sometime in April!

Back to the funny story about Adam and the ultrasound. Adam has been correct about the gender every time! Me? I've been wrong every single time! So, Adam was dead set on this being a girl, I of course thought a girl, but finally after 3 pregnancies and thinking they were all girls and having them turn out to be a boy in every way, I finally thought that there's a chance I'm wrong about another girl and it's probably a boy.

So the tech has the Doppler on me and before she got to the gender reveal, she was measuring the legs I saw something! I didn't say anything though. Once she gets to the gender she freezes it since I FINALLY decided I wanted to know. She asked if I wanted to take a guess, when I said that the baby is a boy, all we heard on the phone was silence. The tech whispered to me, "Is he shocked?" All I could do is laugh and tell Adam he was finally wrong. He asked the tech if she was sure, she said, "Yep. Either that or this baby is growing a thumb between his legs!"

Thanksgiving

2011-11-29T16:40:00.005-07:00

This year it was my side of the family's turn to get together and we decided to have it at my house because it's just easier! I really enjoyed cooking all the things that we were assigned to do. First of all, the time was up in the air until the night before! All because my sister works at Village Inn and was supposed to work from 1-8 that day. She swore she'd get off early and I think she wanted us to wait until she got off and then have Thanksgiving, since she "knew" she'd get off early. We ended up having it at 11, which I think worked out perfect. Oh, and I don't think she got off early at all! That was pretty much all the drama we had, which, if you know my family is basically considered no drama! Kind of blurry, but the turkey looks great, tasted just as good too! Adam told me how I should cook it which included flipping it. That resulted in hot grease splashing onto my chest and in my hair! OUCH! Turkey grease makes for some great hair gel! I was so worried about cooking a 22 lb turkey that I thought just to be on the safe side I should get up at 3 am and put it in the oven, luckily I went to bed at 2 am, overslept my 3 am wake up call and got up at 5:30 instead, the turkey still ended up being done at 9:30...still had some time until everyone else got here!

The clock finally clicked over to 11 and ALL our stuff was ready, just needed everyone to show up. They did, only a few minutes late, but still had to cook the stuffing, assemble the devilled eggs, and they put their coats and junk on the counter, which is where all of the prepared food was supposed to be! Not a big deal, but I was keeping everything organized so well, but that's easy when it's just yourself! I had fun setting the table and trying to make it super nice, especially since our tables all have resin on them! They're very versatile! The kids thought it was so fun to eat in the living room and have such a "fancy table like at a restaurant."

The two older kids wanted the "chicken that comes with the bone." They had smaller plates, so the "chicken that comes with the bone" took up almost the whole plate. At one point Lance just put the leg on the plate and leaned into it to take a bite.

The kids always have fun rough housing with Uncle David, I hope he likes it too. If not...oh well, I guess that's what Uncles are for!

I love that Babe is about to get him from behind and Bonnie (the vicious dog) looks like she's biting his face, I promise she's actually just licking him!

Best Buddies

2011-11-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

Jenson and Bonnie have a very special bond. I'm actually quite surprised that Bonnie is so protective of Jenson, especially because he'll come up and start beating on her for no reason. She's a smart dog, I think she knows that he's young and doesn't understand that we always need to be soft! I've always found Jenson asleep and Bonnie right next to him, either keeping watch or sleeping right along with him.

This one was actually taken before the next one, completely on different days too!

I love when she sleeps with part of her on him, sometimes Jenson will put his head on Bonnie, not sure how or why she tolerates that, but she does!

Mmm...snacks!

Finally! A picture of them both sleeping! They really do have such a special little bond, it's so fun to see. I never really thought I was a dog person, but I guess I am! I have so many pictures of the two of them like this, it will be fun to give him a small book when he's older with all of the pictures.

Babe's 1st loose tooth

2011-11-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

Adam lost his first tooth! Way back on March 1st! He was so proud, he did it by himself! Much different from Lance, so funny how all kids are so different! Adam's reaction was awesome as he pulled his tooth out! I wish I could have gotten it on video! Here he is all proud! I told him to grab a wet washcloth and he'd be able to grab onto the tooth and...YANK! He was determined to do it himself and I thought I'd do the usual, "just let me get a good hold. Oh, look, it's out!!" Instead he put the rag on his tooth and POP, out it came. He said, "I got it! I got it!" as he threw his hands up in the air cheering, then immediately turning to tears because he was so excited!

The tooth fairy has let us keep all of the first teeth that have been lost, she also gives a BIG prize for the first. The first is a very big deal! He's so happy, can you tell? I love it!

Lance's Basketball Season

2011-11-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, basketball season is about to start again and I'm just getting around to posting these. Watching Lance play was so much fun, always something to see! His coach was wonderful and I think he loved it. Although he isn't playing this year because he'd rather to BMX racing and wheelchair racing. I'm working on telling him that wheelchair racing isn't for him and he should be happy about that. I think maybe he's just looking up to Dad though. Maybe he wants to try racing him! All the pictures I got were horrible, because the lighting in the schools+sports action=blurry pics! This is Lance after he stole the ball, ran down the court, took and shot and....missed! Great try though! His team lost almost every game, but they all had so much fun!

After the last game, he received his medal. Since we signed up later they forgot to get our name on a certificate so we didn't get one, but that's okay. He really cares about the medal!

This is the team picture, on the day they did team pictures Lance was puking his guts out! Poor kid, so this is what we got! Honestly, I'm sort of relieved that he didn't want to sign up again, I coached Adam's soccer team, while it was fun, one parent can ruin it for you! (I'm sure it didn't help that I was a bit hormonal either!

Dinosaur Museum

2011-11-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

We love going to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point! Recently we have been going with a friend that goes with her little boy all the time, he ended up being a great little tour guide, such a cute kid! Trying to get three boys that are ready for the sand part to sit still or by each other....not gonna happen!

I don't know the name of this fish, but wow! Could you imagine catching or even just seeing that thing!? Kind of scary!

Watch out boys! You can't go to the dino museum without getting a picture of the shark about to eat you!

I just thought this was funny, this human skeleton is throwing a rock at a mammoth, while a few of his buddies are getting trampled by the mammoth. I'm not sure who won, human or giant animal...

Hooray! Finally they were able to dig for fossils, every one's favorite part!

We had so much fun, love going out with the boys! It's always an adventure!

Japan Dirt Bike Riders-Fast and Furious

2011-11-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

While I was going through some pictures on the computer I came across this photo. I instantly remembered how funny I thought it was. They had dressed up in their suit jackets, dirt bike helmets, and a back pack. I asked what they were doing and they told me they were missionaries, I thought that was so sweet. Then almost immediately it turned to Japan Dirt Bike Riders. They had so much fun playing together. Lance is so funny with Adam, he "doesn't like him," but he LOVES playing with his little brother! I have so many sweet pictures of the two of them playing together. I love it! It's so fun watching them grow and bond with each other. Even the fighting is kind of fun, I think just because it goes along with siblings!

72 hr kits

2011-11-09T08:56:00.001-07:00

At least 6 months ago, we finally got around to getting our 72 hour kits done. I'm glad Adam was pushing us to get this done, I just hope it all goes to waste, I would love to never have to actually use them. I'm so glad we do have them though, so many "what if" situations! It was a lot of work going from store to store buying each item, then remembering something, or some item reminding us of another item we should get. Honestly, I think we went a little overboard, the packs are heavy and they don't even have clothes yet! Like I said before though, I'll be happy when we do need them though!

We made 5 backpacks and divided up most of the things on the table between the 5 of us. Adam and I of course had a few extras, like an ax, a little bit more money in small bills, and a solar/battery/hand crank radio.

It was a lot of fun putting these together knowing that we'll be able to grab our packs, get in the car-hopefully no walking-and go. I definitely recommend that everyone do this! We check the food expiration's every six months, same time we would/should do the smoke alarm batteries, day light savings, and our favorite, General Conference!

Possible profession?

2011-11-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

One night I pulled out my stamps and let the kids go to town making whatever they wanted. I did not think it would turn into this...

...It's Babe though, I should have known right? He's such a funny kid, and as you can see he was VERY proud of his artwork! He just might have a profession later in life!

Mother's Day 2011

2011-11-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day, ummm...5 months ago...was so much fun! The day before I got a "shopping spree!" We were going to go to the Tulip Festival since it had been extended, but decided since it's the last day and the Saturday before Mother's Day that it would be absolutely packed! Not so much fun when Mom would end up cranky because of 3 rambunctious little boys and a wheelchair up and down lots of hills. So we crossed that off our list and went to Tai Pan, where I had a limit of $200! WOW! The wheels were turning, but I couldn't decide and settled on some beanie melts, basically scentsy, but to be honest, much better! Then we headed off to lunch at a small Mexican restaurant, it was good and the kids were wonderful!

While we were at Tai Pan a lady looked at Adam and said, "bless you." She must have seen a certain look on his face! Haha

Sunday, was of course a wonderful day at church. I wanted a picture with all the kids and me for Mother's Day, so these are what we ended up with. Of course the dog had to be in on it. Oh my!

Jenson obviously doesn't want to be involved at this point. I just want one picture where we look like cute little family that his very obedient kids...is that too much?

Well...at least we captured how we really are! I think I love that more than anything else! I'm so thankful for my boys and their wonderful Dad thinking of me on that day. I love them all so much!

POPCORN!

2011-11-03T10:00:00.000-06:00

Jenson and Daddy have a FAVORITE past time....POPCORN! Even when Jenson is the first to bed, he'll usually wake up, bring Dad a pepsi and ask for some "pop-kwee." He knows exactly where it all is and will bring everything to Dad to help fix it. Then they'll sit and watch a couple of racing videos. What a fun memory for these two!! Jenson was amazed that Dad could throw a piece into the air and catch it in his mouth. Of course he tried and made it every time. I guess when you actually bring your hand to your mouth, it's a sure sign it'll make it!

These two were having so much fun I had to stop and take a few pictures. They're both going to love seeing these and remembering all of the cool races they watched to together. I'm so glad that each of our kids have a special time with Dad. So amazing!

Babe's Spidey Shoes

2011-11-02T10:02:00.000-06:00

The following pictures aren't of the best quality, but I had to keep them and post about these pictures. During the Summer Babe lost his shoes at "tadpole pond." Actually he threw them into the middle on purpose! Little punk! So after a few days of no shoes, him wearing snow boots with his shorts during Summer time, and him doing some extra jobs for some new shoes, we went to Target and bought him some. He was so excited to get light up Spidey shoes. I knew he was excited, but didn't realize just how excited he was until I downloaded the pictures from our camera a week or two later!

Showing Spiderman on the side...

...showing the super cool bottoms of the shoes...

... the other side with all the webs...

... the face on the velcro straps...

...And...last but not least, the SUPER COOL light up feature!

I was quite surprised that he was able to get a picture of the lights. He held the shoe in one hand, slammed it down and quickly snapped the button with the other hand!

Babe's Birthday 2011

2011-11-01T10:05:00.001-06:00

After Babe's birthday party with his friends after school, the Grandma's and Grandpa came over. As you can see he was SUPER excited to open up a gift from Grandma R and see that it was a Transformer! From the other Grandma and Grandpa he got a really cute card and some money that he ended up buying another Transformer with!

So happy to have this super crazy boy in our family! We love him so much and his personality is getting bigger and bigger. He constantly has a girlfriend and isn't afraid to tell anyone about her. He isn't shy about anything and he is often found trailing behind us at stores because he stopped to talk to someone else. Doesn't matter the age, it can be a kid, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, etc. Especially in the toy section, he has to stop and tell them what is so neat about that particular toy. One day I said, "Adam!? Come back here!" I heard him talking and he said, "Sorry Mom, I wasn't talking to anyone!" I told him it was fine to talk to others, but to stay by me. Funny, funny kid! We sure do love him!

End of Year School Dance 2011

2011-10-30T01:06:00.000-06:00

We got a new school last school year, at first I was bummed that we were in the new school boundaries. After realizing how much of a blessing that actually was, we all LOVED this school year. The office ladies are amazing, the principal, and all the teacher so far have been more than wonderful! During the last week of school there were a bunch of activities planned, one was a dance. Each grade did a certain dance. It was so darn much fun to watch!! After each class did their dance then the WHOLE school danced together, it was awesome! Sean, Eryk, and Lance. I completely spaced having Lance wear the right colors and some cool shades. They did a robot dance to the song "I like to move it, move it." (I don't think that's the name, but it's what Lance calls it.) I was pleasantly surprised that Lance seemed to really be into the dancing!

I couldn't find Adam in his class until the very end. I did have the video camera out though and spotted him, so I got some good video of him dancing The Chicken Dance. It was hilarious to watch the kindergartners dance like a bunch of chickens, especially when the song went faster and faster!

Pinewood Derby

2011-10-29T11:43:00.001-06:00

Let the racing begin!! It's always so fun to watch the pinewood derby. Wow, some take it so serious! So serious in fact, I was getting mad watching them as they kept winning as my poor kid, that followed the rules, was having some minor issues with the car. It was great to hear another Dad, you know the one, say disgusted, "Too much weight behind the back axles." He said this as he watched Lance's car go down the track. I wanted to say how sorry I was that we didn't cheat like he did. (I do know this because I heard him say things to others.) Anyway...

All the scouts getting ready to race their cars. They're being so good because they can't wait for their name to show up on the screen!

Lance holding up his car, I think he placed 8th out of 9 boys. Not bad for the first try and all the last minute mad dashing!

He hates pictures...can you tell?? It isn't that he's unhappy about his car. He really loved it and can't wait to do it again next year! Good job Lance and Dad!!

The Car

2011-10-28T11:40:00.000-06:00

Adam and Lance were so excited to make a car for the Pinewood Derby this year. (I think this actually happened in April or May) They got started a bit late, but worked hard on this super cool car. They had a hard time getting it to the right weight. It was too heavy, so we were quickly drilling holes in the bottom and sides to get it to the right weight. We had barely a second to spare!

They made a cool shape, and simple paint job. So cool! It was so much fun to see all the other cars and how other (Dad's) made them! ;) Good job Lance and Dad!

Suckers from Grandma

2011-10-27T10:32:00.000-06:00

Grandma went to Las Vegas and brought the kids home some really cool suckers! They were very brightly colored and as soon as you licked the spiral suckers they would change your tongue colors. The kids loved them! Thanks for thinking of us in Vegas Grandma!!

Lance's 9th Birthday

2011-10-26T23:21:00.003-06:00

The whole party crew

Lance wanted to have his 9th birthday party at Jump On It, such a fun place! I think adults like it just as much, if not more than the kids!

All of his favorite people were there! All cousins and almost all of his friends that were invited were able to make it! We needed another car to help drive all of the silly kids, so our WONDERFUL neighbors joked about wanting to go. I said something about that being a perfect idea if they do us a favor by helping drive. They did, it was such a huge relief and such amazing help. They "jumped" right in and helped with drinks, passing out cake, and rounding up kids. My Mother in Law was extremely impressed with them and told me that "They're so cute and polite! If they don't have a job, tell them about Thanksgiving Point Gardens. They'd be great at the desk!" (Sorry I didn't tell you sooner!)

Adam and I are so happy to have Lance in our family. He is such a teaser! He loves to help out, loves Phineas and Ferb, riding his bike and reading! He wants to race BMX and "maybe wheelchair racing." We told him that he might not be able to do the wheelchair gig. He does great in school and seems to like it...mostly! We love this kid and couldn't have asked for a better 9 year old!

First Day of School

2011-10-10T23:51:00.002-06:00

First day of school, sometime in later August. I'm slackin' a bit. Oh well. Lance was NOT excited for school to start, Adam on the other hand couldn't wait!!

Lance 3rd Grade

Honestly, it's more about getting his picture taken, not so much the going to school part, but he still wasn't too excited about that part either! He seems to be liking his teacher which is great. Loves to get his homework done so he can play. (YAY!) He says he gets a party every week if the class earns enough points. I'm wondering if he's exaggerating on that one...I hope so!

Adam 1st Grade

Adam has been so excited to go to to school all day and eat lunch at school too. He even has his glasses on in this picture, pretty much the poor blind kid has worn them. For some reason he HATES them, they're even AWESOME Bumblebee Transformers glasses! I have no clue where they are now. I ordered their glasses on the Internet and I think they screwed up the actual prescription or the pupillary distance or something. So, we're starting all over with eye exams and such. HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! (late)

Tonsil Update!

2011-07-26T15:20:00.002-06:00

I'm so excited that Lance is ALL healed! It seemed like it was starting to drag on and on! At his two week post op check up, the doctor said he was 90% healed and to still stay away from smoking and most importantly...KISSING GIRLS!

Lance was down and not up for doing much for two full weeks! Totally not like him, he didn't eat much, we finally convinced him to just try some foods that weren't in a smoothie, after he realized how much easier it has been to swallow, he's been eating a ton now! Although, a couple of people have commented on how skinny he is now. I think he had a growth spurt, and along with not eating before and after the surgery, it seems like he's MUCH skinnier, but I think it's mostly that he has gotten taller.

We had a scout day camp that was on a Thursday and Friday. Lance was so excited to go and since it was about 10 days after the surgery we thought it would be fine for him to go. He had to get up at 6 am, so after getting him ready I took advantage of the sleeping household and weeded the front flower beds. I got this feeling that I should at least go check my phone, but brushed it aside thinking, "it's 7 am, no one calls that early and Lance is probably LOVING day camp." A little bit later a neighbor came over on her bike and told me the leaders were trying to get a hold of me. Dang it! Should have listened to the small voice telling me to check my phone! Luckily the camp was close, so it didn't take too long to get to him. Before he left I gave him some Lortab, I knew it would make him a little loopy, but thought it would help. Well, I forgot that the doctor mention around day 8 or so the scabs would fall off. (gross, I know, but it is what it is.) That Thursday and Friday, just happened to be our scab day! Poor kid! I think besides the first day right after the surgery and the shock of having your tonsils yanked out, the scab-falling-off-days are the WORST! He actually came home from the scout camp, didn't eat, or take any more pain medicine because he was asleep from about noon until 11 pm. Woke up until 1 or 2 am and slept until noon again, then went to bed around 8 or 9 that night. After a couple more days of resting he was good to go!

His voice was a little high even after he felt really really good, so I was a little worried about that, and him going back to school. On the paper the doctor gave us, it said, that the voice being higher might last up to 6 weeks, and if it's like that after that time, they might need to do surgery to correct it! AHHH!! No way Jose! I don't want to do another surgery for the poor kiddo! I can't even imagine how it is for families that have to have surgery after surgery for other things.

A few funny things Lance did while on his pain meds were:

While we were driving home, just 4 miles or so from our house he said, "Where are we going?" I told him we were going home. He told me that "this isn't the way!" I looked at him funny and thought, "is we playing with me, or is he really out of it?" It did take him a few minutes to respond and he was staring out the window with a weird look on his face. I think he caught on that he was being goofy, so he started adding to it. I still don't know if he actually knew where we were or not.

He described his neck pain as "a broken neck, and it feels like I'm doing a cartwheel with a broken neck." Poor kid! I told him I'm sorry and that I promised it would be worth it because he has no more monstrous tonsils!!

Kindergarten Promotion

2011-07-20T14:15:00.000-06:00

Adam had his kindergarten promotion a little while ago...blog slackin'! It was so cute to see all the kids singing and getting their certificates. For Adam and another boy, it was a little too long, but still so fun!

I wish this one wasn't blurry! He had so much fun looking into the audience to see us. He kept yelling out, "Jenson! Jenson! Jensssssooonnnnn!!!" Until he finally looked and he could wave.

Yeah, Adam!! Congrats on your Kindergarten Promotion! I can't wait to see what next year brings, during big ol' first grade! A whole bunch of new things, school all day, lunch, recess on the BIG kids playground and so much more!

Adam will be doing some speech therapy, once or twice a week, I can't remember. I was a little surprised when his K teacher said he needs it. After she mentioned it, it all made sense, he did need a little extra help. Being his Mom, I just didn't even notice because I know everything (mostly) that he says. I'm so thankful for teachers that are willing to get kids what they need, it's always nice to have an "outsiders" opinion.

I'm a little worried about his reading, he does not like to do any work, especially reading. I bought both the kids workbooks for this summer, and with the tonsillectomy, we've slacked big time on doing any work! Any tips? We read together often, but once I have him start reading, even the words: I, and, it, in, on...those type of words he gets frustrated and says he can't do it. I give him lots of praise and those type of words he does know. I know the school we go to is wonderful and the teachers are wonderful. I did talk to his K teacher and she said she'd put him in the class that she thinks will work the best for him. So thankful for that!

Puff quilt

2011-07-15T15:59:00.008-06:00

This is the first quilt I have made...successfully. I tried making one for my sister a few Christmases ago, I thought it was fine, but I don't think it even exists anymore. After making this one, I realize how NOT fine the other one was! At least I tried, and at least I tried again. I LOVED making this quilt! So puffy and soft and I love the colors!

After cutting all the squares I couldn't wait to sew them together and make a bunch of little puffy squares. I had issues with my machine, you know where the thread underneath bunches up and makes giantic loops...yeah, that's what happened. BUT...I didn't freak out, at least not too bad and I fixed it MYSELF!

Each step of making this puff quilt I would get more and more excited, it was so fun to see something go from sheets of fabric to a wonderfully, soft, puffy quilt! I couldn't wait for our newest nephew to be born either, I'm sure the new Mom and Dad couldn't either!

I had a few mess ups, but when I make the next one, because there will be a next one, I will have to pay better attention on the dimensions. It was supposed to have 8 squares in each row, but for the border to fit I had to chop some of that off. The border is also a little twisty, maybe I didn't cut the fabric witht he grain or bias or whatever it's called!

Anyway, here it is:

Soft puffy back! The Mom tells me that they love it and the baby likes the back, especially when he's hungry! I bet he's wondering why milk isn't coming out! :)

I also want to let people know I wasn't the one that came up with the pattern or tutorial. I'm not that creative...yet! Anyway, I LOVE this blog, Honey Bear Lane. She has some super, super, super cute ones. It just makes you want to have one for yourself. All the colors and puffiness, amazing!

Tonsils are gone!

2011-06-30T11:53:00.002-06:00

Yesterday Lance had his tonsils out. We are so happy they are gone, I didn't realize what a problem they were! I think I'll realize that even more when we're more than 24 hours post op! It was interesting how everything happened, so I'll tell you...

One dark and stormy night...

Really though, Lance had a dental check up a couple of months ago, unfortunately he has a couple cavities, so to keep the kids having good dentist experiences, I asked if we could just put him out and not do the gas. The dentist told me if it was in a hospital he could, but with no insurance that will be super expensive. They could do it in their office, but since they don't intubate he was worried his tonsils would kind of relax, fall back and close off his airway. So he referred us to a couple of ENT's. This last visit for Lance was the first visit he was willing to let them do x rays and clean his teeth, which is why I wanted to knock him out, that way he wouldn't remember much!

Since we have been to an amazing ENT before, Dr. Nielsen, we were just going to go there. We went there for a bump behind Lance's ear, The Monster! I, of course, put it off, then a few weeks ago, all of a sudden Lance didn't want to eat anything. Very strange for this meat and potatoes kind of a boy! We asked why and he said it was because of his tonsils and that he choked on watermelon. Now, I didn't exactly blow it off, but I wondered how he could choke on watermelon and just figured he had overheard the doctor about his tonsils. The next day, which was Tuesday, he mentioned he choked on a chip. I know Heavenly Father has blessed us through this whole ordeal, everything, and I mean everything fell into place perfectly! I called the ENT that day figuring it would be a at least a month before we could be seen. Imagine my surprise when they could see us the next day! This was before they knew why we needed to be seen.

At the doctor's office, he looked for a split second because Lance yanked his hand away from his face so fast, I wondered if the doctor got a good look. He's an older guy, so I assumed he has done this a billion times and knew exactly where and what to look for. That was the only look he got and he said, "Yep, they're big, they need to come out!" At that moment I wondered just how big they were. The doctor asked Lance if he smoked, "because that's why they're so big." Lance told him, "no way!" Then the doctor asked if it was kissing all the girls. Lance had the same response. He figured it was from eating to much pizza, Lance said, "I don't eat too much pizza!" I love it when a doctor will be on the kids level, and not make it feel like it's just and adult conversation, about them. The doctor told me that if he ever got tonsillitis, it could be...(you know)...because the tonsils would swell up and close off his airway. SCARY!

So yesterday we had the surgery, he did really well. Walked into the OR, climbed up on the bed, and laid down and even let them put the mask on him! After a few deep breaths he tried sitting up, but was quickly stopped by a huge yawn! Such a better experience than last time, I had to carry him in, 7 months pregnant, hold him down while a couple nurses helped, he was screaming and then nothing because of the gas.

Lance has a mini video camera and before he went in he asked, "If they don't let us keep the tonsils can you take a picture?" We asked the nurse if we could and she told us they can't do that. We just happened to mention it to the doctor and he told another nurse, "Okay, get a specimen cup filled with alcohol, they want to see these." So...just so you know...here's a pic:

They shrink when you put them in the alcohol, so they were 30% bigger. Isn't that nuts? I'm shocked, I see why it's such a big deal.

We're now just over 24 hours after surgery and he seems to be doing really well. No throwing up, which I'm so thankful for, he is taking his medicine, drinking fluids, resting, and all the other good stuff. He hasn't eaten too much, but that's expected. The nurse called to check on him, I think it's her day off so she even gave me her home number!

Skip and Jan also helped us out. It was so wonderful to come home to happy kids, and a great smelling house, she made us an amazing lunch! Adam put Bonnie, the dog, in the pool, then said, "Go get Grandma!" So...poor Grandma got a good spray of wet dog. I asked if Adam if he did it on purpose, he got this big evil grin and said, "No, I did it as a joke!" Silly kid!

Adam's 6th Birthday

2011-06-05T17:13:00.000-06:00

Adam turned 6 on the 28th of May. He wanted a Transformers and Spiderman birthday party, so we did a little of both and compromised on the other parts. I'm so glad Adam is in our lives, he's such a funny kid, always doing something naughty, but makes you laugh at the same time. Hard to discipline with a smile on your face!

I ended up doing mini cupcakes because I was out of regular cupcake liners, I think it actually worked out quite well. The cupcakes look like they could be for Memorial Day, 4th of July or...Spiderman and Transformers, right? Okay, not so much the last two, but Spidey is red and Optimus Prime is red and blue!

I was in a hurry and instead of going with the original plan of getting $5 pizza, I grabbed the $1.25 pizzas from Wal mart. Any food that costs $1.25 and comes from Wal Mart is a recipe for yuck! The kids either weren't hungry or the pizza was that gross. I'm willing to bet the pizza was that gross. I wouldn't know because my friend Melissa came over with some Cafe Rio!

Gifts... ...Optimus Prime Pinata...

...for Pinata Time! The kids really loved this part. Honestly though, I'd rather make my own pinata, a slap an Optimus sticker on it. This one was $20, HARD to break through it, and the bag of pinata candy/toy mix didn't all fit in. Only the stomach/chest area of Optimus could be filled.

Oh no! Bumble Bee is beating Optimus!

SMACK!

Optimus beating Optimus!

Ninja Turtle....WHAM!

SMACK!!

A little helper...WHAM!

Finally, a girl to show the boys how it's done!

Alright, another girl! Show these boys how it's done!

Unfortunately it didn't break open. So we started over, this time without the blind fold and immediately, with a metal bat, that became way too dangerous, so I ripped open Optimus...

...and the kids went crazy!

Then we had our cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday, while Adam "blew" out the candles, darn wind!

Opening presents is always the best part! I loved his reaction with each one!

The whole party!

It was a wonderful party and I think Adam had a lot of fun having his friends come over. Happy Birthday to the coolest 6 year old around!! We love you Babe!

Flowers for Mom

2011-06-04T17:09:00.000-06:00

A few days ago Adam came in with a bunch of weeds sticking out of his dirt bike helmet. He took off his helmet, grabbed the weeds, which were actually flowers and gave them to me with a big hug. Love that kid! I was visiting with the RS President, so I asked him to put them in some water. Well, he actually found a vase and put them nicely on the table. Such a sweet kid!

Spelling Bee

2011-06-03T17:00:00.003-06:00

Lance participated in the 2nd Grade spelling bee. He practiced hard and did really well! Unfortunately he got out on the word SELL because he spelled it SAIL. They didn't automatically do it in a sentence and he didn't ask. Once he started spelling the word I was hoping he was spelling the one of the slip of paper his teacher had. He still had so much fun and we are so proud of him!

Lance, Eryk, and Sean showing off their participation awards!

All I want...

2011-05-19T22:04:00.000-06:00

...for Christmas...is my two front teeth! Lance came to us one night after eating an apple and asked us to check if he tooth was ready to come out. I looked and said, "What? One is already out!? You must have swallowed it!" Within 20 minutes the other top tooth was out. I love his new look! This was actually about a month ago, so the one side has grown in some, but it's so dang cute! I think it was the next day or maybe two days later he lost another tooth! We joked that the tooth fairy would be broke if he kept this up! (don't mind the dirt/cookies/whatever it is, or the cold sore! :( poor kiddo!)

Happy Anniversary!

2011-05-18T21:19:00.009-06:00

TWO MONTHS AGO was our anniversary, I'm so on top of blogging that I'm blogging about it now! We decided to pack up some stuff and head down to sunny St. George! It was perfect, but a lot of driving. It seems like that's almost all we ever do on trips is drive, drive, and drive some more. We made a stop at The Hoover Dam, that was really cool, and quite scary.

These cool old cars are just off the freeway south of Provo. I'd like to know the story behind them. Why are they just left there? Do they all belong to the same person?

It was interesting to see and hear about the technology the dam (hehe) workers came up with back then! You can kind of see the display card, but the cable is 3 1/2 inches and could carry 150 tons! If you click on this picture you can see some of the wages they earned back then. They told us they were paid well during this time. When Lance saw some of the earnings he was surprised, it's weird to think that what they made back then is what we pay for a candy bar!

This was a big tribute to the workers that had died during the construction of the dam. It was really neat to hear the loud speaker talking about the facts of the dam. The ground where we are in the pic is a bunch of constellations. We were told if you rub the feet of the statue you'd have good luck. Interesting to see how the oxidation on the statues from everybodys hands. I wonder how many hands have touched those feet!

We actually did go to Zion National Park, but as you can see it was dark, kind of pointless, but it was still fun. We stopped and got a couple of souvenirs of some rocks. When Adam and I had our honeymoon we actually went to Zion on our way back and stopped at a cute little gift shop and bought a really neat looking blue colored glass rock. When we bought some more rocks this trip, we actually stopped at the same gift shop! This time I picked a rock called carborundum. It's all black, but has a bunch of color in it too. Kind of like when you look at bubbles, and you can see the colors.

Anyway, they wrapped the rocks in the newspaper, we stopped to eat and I looked back to see the boys "reading" the paper. Funny that one is looking for a job and the other is reading about money!

What's a hotel stay without swimming?? Jenson LOVED it, I can't wait for the weather to be decent, for more than a few days! We didn't get pics of the other kids swimming because they were all over the place. It was awesome to swim outside in March!

The dam is over 700 feet high! I just keep imaging someone using the concrete as a slide, that is so scary to me! I don't know why I think of that, but I do. SCARY! This picture was taken from inside, which has floor to ceiling glass so you can see it. We were outside looking at the same view, you can see the rock and drop off in the bottom right of the picture...again, scary! Especially when Jenson hooked his hands on to the railing as I'm holding him and he's pulling himself closer. I had to put my weight into holding him back. Adam was also jumping up so he could see better, I thought if he gets a good jump he's going to go right over. There would be newspaper headlines saying, "first family to have obnoxious kids go over dam." Ugh, I hate that I can't think of it. One of the workers said, "Ma'am, you can go inside, it'll be safer." Yes, I know, gladly!

We took an elevator, obviously, to get down into the dam. The elevator ride was a minute long, and it was going fast!

And....last, but not least...

...This was one of my favorite pictures. When we came back up and got off the elevator, we walked over to the glass and saw this cool rock. I thought it was very appropriate because we were on an anniversary vacation, and the day we went to the dam, just happened to be our actually anniversary! Awww...now, that's love!

About the hotel stay...we got our ADA compliant room and I checked it out. We had upgraded and we saw the pics online. Well, we didn't get the room we thought we did. So I went back up to the front desk and asked about it. The guy said to me, "so he's actually in a wheelchair?" Umm...yeah. I know he didn't exactly mean it that way, but that's how it sounded and he should have said it different! He said the only thing the rooms need to be ADA is the switches lowered, and any counters need to be lowered. That's it. The bed doesn't need to be lowered, etc. I thought we were getting a super nice bath tub...I've always wanted to use one! No awesome bath tub, not even a roll in shower. I wasn't happy about the room, but figured I'd forget it, not too big a deal, right? Well, in the morning the toilet was leaking a ton! There's my ticket out of there!

I went up to the front desk and told them about it and asked for another room. They said no problem, I didn't specify that we had an ADA room, or even upgraded with kitchen and all that...oh and the nice bathtub, that wasn't! So the guy gives us a new room. It turns out this new room is the basic of the basic...Adam couldn't even have gotten into the bathroom. His chair barely fit between the bed and the dresser. Maybe I could have just rearranged the furniture! So, here we go up to the front to complain, once again, and for the final time. This time I told Adam he had to come and do the talking. Lance and I noticed the room we saw online right across from our first room, and it was empty!

So, now Adam is talking to the guy...No Problem! You can have that room! Seriously?! It's that easy? So finally we're in a room that is what we thought we were getting in the first place and then some! It had 3 sliding doors onto the nice big porch, an actual dining area, TV above the fireplace, fireplace in the master bedroom and two bathrooms...BOTH with amazing tubs!! You know where I spent the rest of my night!

It was a super fun trip and with Summer so close now, I can't wait to go on more adventures! Happy Anniversary Adam, I've loved these 9 years together, here's to 9 more and then some! (wink wink)

April Fool's Day!

2011-04-12T10:09:00.000-06:00

I LOVE April Fool's Day! My Mom has been on her toes the last few years, the kids and I love pulling pranks on her! This year we didn't do much, but I did see this online, I can't remember where, but just know I'm not taking credit for the idea. I loved these, so fun and cute! My favorite has got to be the "mashed potatoes!" Adam said he wouldn't eat these (and he didn't) because he thought it might be a double prank. Ya know, like I put something into the cake mix! I'm not that mean! I just do funny pranks, where no one will get hurt...at least not too bad!

Some other pranks I've done:

*To Adam I put a little post it note underneath the computer mouse. Since it uses a laser or whatever to move around, the post it stopped it from moving. It was great to see him checking everything on the computer, checking the connections, etc. I think I went over and said, "maybe if I do this, it'll work!"

*Another one to Adam, I put on some chapstick, then some baby orajel. I had to leave early that morning for something so I gave him a quick kiss, he was still half asleep so it worked so well! Instantly he was rubbing his lips saying, "What was that!?" Poor guy!

*Okay, this one was for my Dad, you have to know he is the type of guy that can fix just about anything, except car stuff. Anyway, we had horses and a barn and all that, so one day...and I don't think this was April Fool's Day...I think I did it just because. So, I'm about 14 or so, I went into this barn and unscrewed the ALL the light bulbs, just enough so they wouldn't turn on, but hey were still in the light fixtures. So my Dad goes out to the barn, I follow him and he tries the lights...nothing. He pulls out his flashlight and starts looking at the breaker box, all breakers are obviously fine, but he can't figure out why the lights aren't working. After a few minutes I told him I might be able to help. He looked at me like I was nuts and probably told me I couldn't, but I stood up on a chair and tightened the light bulb, and...TA-DA...it worked!

*Chocolate covered cotton balls. My Mother in Law/Mom #2 did this one to me. Hilarious, I've gotten quite a few people on this one. My Mom thinks I can't cook/bake so she was being nice about these amazing chocolates I had made, finally I told her....but I didn't tell another person in time...oops! I totally thought she'd get it! I went to a meeting and they encouraged us to bring treats, then they said the meeting was April 1st...PERFECT! So I bring my plate of treats over and most people got it right away..."oh yeah, haha!" One person, who shall remain nameless, said, "Oh, these are the best ever! I love these!" I wasn't sure if she was joking or not, so I just let it go. Then she took one, tried biting into it, but obviously you can't just bite it, so she ends up putting the whole thing in her mouth and chews...and chews...and chews some more until...she SWALLOWED it! I didn't know what to do, so I just kept my mouth shut, which is why this person will remain nameless! ;)

*Last year my sisters and I got together and rearranged some furniture in my Mom's house. We also saran wrapped the cushions, some things in the fridge, and weaved the saran wrap throughout the railings on her stairs. It was great, this year she came home for lunch just to make sure everything was okay!

*My Mom has this amazing hutch that used to be my Grandma's. She takes REALLY good care of it and if you even look like you're going to set something on it, she's stopping you before you've even done it. So I had my sister put a potato chip in her hutch on a napkin. Then I told her to call Mom at work and tell her that she noticed that there was a "chip" in her hutch! Well, my sister didn't do it when she was supposed to and I don't think was totally into playing a joke, so my Mom caught on pretty quick, but the next time the kids were over, she got a good amount of teasing in! They were in on it too and the "chip" was from them. One think that I love about that joke is that the "chip" is still in there! Aww...I'm sure people wonder why she has a chip on a napkin in her hutch, displayed front and center!'

Found!

2011-04-11T10:04:00.000-06:00

The other day the kids were digging in the garden and found a "treasure." They brought me these lovelies: Adam's first pair of glasses! The kids had dug a pretty good sized hole, probably 6 inches deep, so I'm wondering how these got there!? I think I remember his glasses being lost...now I know where to look next time. I can guarantee there will be a next time. Right now Lance's glasses are lost, maybe we should keep digging? (Actually, I'm pretty sure that they're at a hotel we stayed at recently.)

Basketball hoop

2011-04-09T09:54:00.000-06:00

Lance has really been wanting a basketball hoop. Adam says we shouldn't get one because it's an eye sore and it will eventually stop being used. I said we should get one, the kids will love it, I think there will be phases of when it's getting used and not. Since we weren't completely decide Lance took matters into his own hands!

Nice shot!

Love the action on this one!

See what he did? Pretty creative! My lovely big pots that I love so much is the basket. I'm just glad that nothing is planted in them...yet. We finally did get a basketball hoop, I wanted to surprise him and get it while he was at school and have it put together by the time he got home. Well...of course that didn't go as planned, why would it?? I got the base and the wheels on the base on in...drumroll please...45 minutes!! Seriously...so now, I'm to the point of putting the backboard on, I think I did all the other stuff at least 3 weeks ago! Poor kid. If this darn weather would stay warm and stop teasing us, maybe I'd have the motivation to finish it!

Painting

2011-04-08T09:45:00.000-06:00

Whenever I go to the craft store with the kids they always ask if they can get "sumting ta paint!" I usually say no, but have decided I should say yes more often. They love it, it can be a little messy, but with summer coming, we could paint outside and it wouldn't be that big of a deal! They love picking out what they will paint, this usually takes a looonnngggg time! They want to paint everything, since they can only paint one thing they can never decide which one would be the best.

Jenson had fun painting his cool little dinosaur!

Adam also got a dinosaur and really got into the painting! I love his position, such a silly kid!

Lance is serious about his painting! The end result was a very fun and colorful box to put marbles, rocks, shark teeth, and anything else a boy finds interesting!

Jenson takes a bath!

2011-04-07T09:40:00.002-06:00

I guess Jenson wanted to take a bath before I could get one started. We talked about getting ready to take a bath, but I had to finish putting away some laundry. I could hear water running and when I went to investigate, I didn't think I'd find him in the sink with the water on! He looks so proud! He's going to love Summer time, I have a feeling we'll be in the pool all day, every day!

Skink

2011-03-31T17:47:00.007-06:00

We've had this little critter for a while now. I was bummed, right as I was getting attached to Spook the Snake...gross, I know, but I was getting attached, she died. I even cried over her death, how sad is that? Anyway, within days Adam said we should get a lizard, I was a little upset at how quickly he was getting over the death of sweet little Spook! I obviously gave in, and we came home with a Blue-Tongued Skink. I really didn't like her at first, she seemed so mean. When you'd put your hand in to get her out she'd start huffing and puffing. Seriously, her whole body would move up and down with each huff, it was scary. As soon as you touched her and let her know you were boss, she was fine. I like her because of her attitude, yet loving side. Who says these things? "Loving side" for a lizard or "getting attached to a snake?" Come on now! She loves apple sauce and loves to eat it from a spoon, it's actually really cool!

Of course the kids aren't afraid of her, which kind of scares me! Look at her tail and her hands. She kind of reminds us of a dinosaur/alligator, probably because there's some sort of relation somewhere along the line.

Lance of course loves her. She eats mostly fruits and vegetables and of course the occasional cricket, meal worm, or pinky mouse! I haven't done any pinky mice, because I bet that's what happened with the snake. She got sick and ended up getting mouth rot, which is common in snakes. Some of the pinky mice I fed her looked quite disgusting, looking back I'm willing to bet they were sick or something. I'm no pinky mouse expert, so I don't really know, maybe they all look so gross!

So does Dad. Why if all these boys love her so much I'm the one left to feed her, clean her cage, hold her, etc? I think it's their plan to get me to like all these crazy reptiles!

This was the best picture I could get of her tongue. You can kind of tell that it's blue. It looks like a blue flower petal. Aren't her scales really neat and pre historic looking??

Spiderman!

2011-03-28T22:25:00.003-06:00

It's a well known fact that every boy in our house, around the age of 2 becomes a super hero. I think it's a forever thing. I was so happy when Lance and Babe grew out of the obsession of wearing the costumes every day. Okay, maybe I was a little sad, but definitely more happy. A little while ago Adam said, "By the way, I ordered something for Jenson. He's going to LOVE it!" I just said okay, and went about my day. Then he tells me it's going to arrive today. I excitedly asked what it was. "Hahaahaa, you're going to hate me...it's a costume." WHAT? Oh dear... Jenson was extremely excited when he opened the packaging and saw that it was a "bad duy!" I have to admit it was really cute!

He immediately went to work tracking down the bad guys. He loved it, he hasn't been completely obsessed, but we do have an iron man glove and he wore that to church and all day to day. I think the obsession is starting...help!

Honestly, I get kind of caught up in the whole, "Oh my! He can't wear that. He needs actual clothes. People will say their smart alec comments about, 'Hey, it isn't Halloween!'" Really, smart guy? I take it you've never had a toddler that wanted nothing more but to me a princess or "bad duy?" In reality, I love that the kids get to have their little fantasy played out for them. Wouldn't it be awesome for us, as adults, to go to the grocery store dressed in our Cinderella dress or Superman? Could you imagine the looks? :) I LOVE when I'm out and I see another parent with a child dressed up. I think it's so wonderful that they're willing to put their guard down and let the kid be a kid!

Bonnie in the Snow

2011-03-10T08:02:00.003-07:00

A few months ago we finally got a good chunk of snow. The kids were loving it, as was Bonnie. She didn't know what to think at first, but being a dog, she just had to explore!

I think we had at least 6, maybe 8 inches. The kids were cracking up watching her run through the snow, besides actually playing in the snow, it was the next best thing!

P.S. 10 more days until Spring!

New Furnace

2011-03-08T23:31:00.005-07:00

About a month ago, of course when it was REALLY cold, our furnace decided it was time. We couldn't whisper sweet nothings to that lousy, er, amazing furnace anymore. It just couldn't blow out hot air anymore. We finally cleaned our basement, it looked like we should have been on a show of hoarders, seriously a FULL trailer of junk GONE!! It was from some random handy guy off of ksl.com. Just to make conversation I asked him if this was all he did. Well, it turns out that he also does heating and air! Sweet! "So, uh wanna come over? I bet you can make this place warm!"

This is a nice furnace that does what it's supposed to. See all four blue flame thingeys? Good furnace!

Bad furnace...this is ours. Not good, not on the week of freezing temps for the HIGH!

Oh, and it's really dirty. The guy mentioned that a time or two, or five or six. (Note to self: Keep furnace clean!) So, since ours pretty much literally bit the dust, we had no heat until Monday, I think this all happened on Thursday. Boohoo

Luckily, we have AMAZING neighbors. Between our neighbors and facebook, we were able to get all these heaters in such a short amount of time. Don't you love that? See, facebook can be good. I thought it was funny that between 3 of the neighbors they all had the same space heater. Awesome! With these heaters and another one of ours we were able to warm the house up really warm, then sleep with one on. I was a little nervous to leave more than one on. So, obviously locking us in our room with one, is safe, right?! So, yeah, we slept with all 3 kids, husband and wife, and dumb chihuahua in the same bed for 3 or so nights. I was so happy to have our bed back!

Look at the bright shiny new furnace! It's great and it runs so nicely, it's wonderful to have heat. It still works too! (Hope I didn't jinx it.) So, now the only thing we can replace would be the washer and dryer...umm...it takes THREE times to dry our clothes!

It's nice to have heat again! Thanks to all of our wonderful neighbors!

Star Week

2011-03-06T16:57:00.002-07:00

Lance was the Star of the Week in his class, about a month ago! He was really excited that he would be able to make a poster and show it off, take treats, and have a show and tell.

For his treat he brought life savers and for his show and tell he took his racing gloves, race jacket and the neck brace. He loved the comments from his class, although he didn't really let you know that he loved it. Some comments were:

"You're awesome!"

"You're cool!"

We don't have a color printer, which would have come in handy for so, so, so, many things, I just might get us one! Anyway, since I procrastinated, then procrastinated some more, we didn't have time to get the actual pictures printed, so we just did black and white and added our own special effects...with crayons and markers! Haha!

Book of Mormon

2011-02-24T07:57:00.003-07:00

I love reading the scriptures with the kids, I think at times they understand more than I do! It's so wonderful to hear their comments! The primary has challenged us to read The Book of Mormon by the end of the year, that's just 2 pages a day. We have been taking this challenge serious, and the kids have loved it! They're usually the ones to remind us. The other night, while reading in Mosiah 2:41, "...and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of neverending happiness...",

After reading this scripture, I stopped to tell the kids how ownderful it is, that if we are kind to one another, do righteous things, we will be able to live with Heavenly Father and never be sad. Babe's eyes lit up, he threw both arms up in the air and said, "YEAH!! Let's do it!!!"

I LOVE his enthusiasm, I hope we can always be that excited about scripture study, serving others, praying, tithing, and wanting to live with Heavenly Father again.

Christmas Card Out-takes

2011-02-21T22:36:00.007-07:00

For our Christmas Cards this year, I found a cute idea of having each child hold a letter to intentionally misspell the word. Then saying something cute like, "Any way you spell it, we hope you have JOY this Christmas season." Well...as you can see, it didn't quite turn out that way:

I can't see your face!

Nice Babe, real nice! This one almost made the cut. Babe: "Look Mom! It's a hat!" Lance: "We love messin' with ya Mom!" JUMP!

Lance and Babe: JUMP!

Jenson: Oohh..what's outside?

Someone's missing...

This one would have been good too!

When you tell Jenson to smile, this is his smile, squinty eyes and all.

Again...Nice Babe! At this point bribes were used, you can tell because Lance is taking it serious.

Alright, guys, come one...just sit and smile...give me ONE good picture! Is that too much? Notice the letters are gone?

And....we're DONE!! They did not get the bribe...which was a late night gas station run. Sorry boys! But we did end up with one of my MOST favorite Christmas Cards!

Previous Years:

2009

2008

Our Actual card ended up like this: >

High Expectations

2011-02-18T10:52:00.001-07:00

This is obviously way late, but I still want to blog it and have it here, so that if I ever get around to making my blog into a cute little book, I'll have this in it. Anyway, Christmas was really hard this year. With Jenson's birthday kicking off our 1st party out of the 5 for that WEEK, we had others before and after, probably 8-10 parties. WAAYYY too much! We seriously had 5 parties in 5 days...bit much, dontcha think?? I do. I know what we're doing next year. Sorry to anyone that really wants us to be there, but we'll be home on Christmas day, if you want to see us that bad, come on over! ;)

I think this party was the 4th one out of the 5 in 5. We went to my Mom's and did the whole dinner and exchanging gifts thing. Babe LOVES Iron Man, Batman, and Bumblebee. So you would think you couldn't go wrong getting him a Bumblebee helmet/mask, right? Especially when you ask me beforehand and I say, "Yeah, he's been wanting one, that would be great!"

So we get to opening gifts, by this point the kids are in the "gimme gimme gimme" mode. They really think Christmas is at least a week long holiday now. Lance and Adam both get a gift that's about the same size and they get to open them at the same time. Lance got the paper ripped off faster, so Babe looks over and gets excited thinking he's going to get an Iron Man helmet too! So he starts frantically ripping the paper off only to see some yellow. Huh? Iron Man doesn't have yellow. He felt jipped, he wanted Iron Man. This was his reaction:

Poor Kid!

I felt so bad for him, he was so disappointed. At this point you're probably thinking, "what, she felt bad for him? I woulda smacked the ungrateful kid upside the head!" Before you go judging me though, let's remember all the parties, every party they have gotten a big gift and lots of little gifts, when you're 5 and it's Christmas time, I can relate. I bet we all can.

Don't even get me started on the white elephant party...did not go well!

Nap Time!

2011-02-17T07:46:00.003-07:00

Or is it?? After putting Jenson down for his nap I could hear some giggling and notice the dog wasn't laying on the floor, sprawled out soaking up the sun. I went to investigate and saw this:

They are the best of buds!

Raingutter Regatta

2011-01-31T23:41:00.010-07:00

Last month for pack meeting we had the rain gutter regatta, I think I was as excited as Lance was! We started making his boat, and after several failed attempts on my part, I gave up and left it to the Dad, his job anyway, right? Here's what we started with. I thought it would be a great idea to just get the foam that we had here, cut off a chunk, then get a pencil for the mast, and a piece of fabric or something for the sail. Walaa! Done, right!? Uh... Tilt your head...not so much! This is why I gave up, I thought a straw, a block of foam and a sliver of foam would be great! It looks like it's doing well in our rain gutter, er...crock pot. The dang thing fell over right after I took this picture, oh well.

Finally, after dinner and everything, Dad took over with the making of the boat. I loved when Adam told Lance to get the dremel, I was nervous about it, but Lance was very open to the idea. The second he turned it on and heard the sound of the little motor he got a look on his face. I love that look, it's one of him smiling, but trying so hard not to smile, almost like he doesn't want to show his excitement. I loved it!

Then they cut up a Pepsi can and drew a skull and crossbones of wrenches.

I'm loving the intense concentration, this is what these Regatta's and Derby's are all about. So. Much. Fun! (When Dad takes over!)

Measure twice, cut once! Lance is making sure it isn't any wider than the requirement.

FINALLY THE BIG DAY ARRIVES!

Lance is getting ready, eyeing the competition, looking down the rain gutter...Ready, Set, BLOW!!!!

Whoa! Getting a little tippy! Blow!! You can do it! Unfortunately, he didn't win, but he didn't seem to mind!

Lance and his masterpiece!

Warning Only

2011-01-27T00:28:00.002-07:00

Earlier this month my side of the family got together and opened our time capsule that we put together New Year's Eve 1999-2000! I remember that I had a report card in there, other than that, I had no clue. After opening the capsule my sisters and I saw a bunch of stuff that we had either forgotten about or had no clue why it was in there. Thankfully there was a video in it! The video was definitely the best part! This was one thing in the capsule for me, I remembered this one after seeing it! Definitely a story to this one...

...I was on my way to work, flying down the road like I usually did, all of a sudden a cop comes out of nowhere, I decide I'm going to turn, I'm sure that will throw him off, right? Well, of course I got stopped at the light on 700 East. I remember looking in my rear view mirror and watched him pull out his pen. I distinctively remember that, it was like in the movies, as he pulled out his pen, the sun hit it just right and it made a little flash. Right then I thought, "Crap! He's writing my ticket, I'm so busted!"

Let me also add, this is the same city that my Mom works in...at the police department in the records! Crap, I'm so busted!

Now that he pulls me over, has all my info, etc. etc., he comes back to the car and says, "So...what's Dear ol' Momma gonna say about this?" Because our last name isn't the usual Smith, or Anderson, he recognized the last name. Right then I knew he knew who I was and he could tell my Mom before I had the chance to, and I'm sure my life would be ruined! I tried to smile and just said, "Well, she isn't going to like it." Then he said, "Well, since you didn't use her name or anything, I'm going to let you go." What? Seriously? Just like that? I guess it does pay to be nice! ;)

I got out of the ticket, holy cow, so relieved! I mean, I was only going 52 in a 35...that's only 17 over, right!?

Christmas Lists for Dad

2011-01-21T09:59:00.003-07:00

I asked the kids to write a list of things they wanted to get for Dad for Christmas...I didn't quite expect the things they came up with!

Lance's list:

*A cool poem

*DJ Tools 2 (something you can mix music with)

*A knife kit

*To get out of his wheelchair

*A new ?

*11 lizards

*A new shop to buy

*Play Hot Teacher on Christmas (heard that song? Adam brought it to the boys' attention, they now love it.)

*A new fishing pole

*11 snakes

Adam's list: *Okay, so the top half of the page...the box is a picture of a Jack in the Box, the picture to the left of that is the "Jack" that farts. So he wants to get his Dad a Jack in the Box that farts. (Can you tell he's 5, and a boy??) *Hot Teacher on Christmas *10 dogs

It's so fun to see what kids want to get for the people in their lives. Some are just plain funny, while others are so sweet. I can't wait to see what they say for Father's Day, Birthday's and next Christmas!

Okinawa Goodies!

2010-12-29T19:48:00.020-07:00

A week or two ago we received a package FULL of some awesome goodies from Okinawa. Some were yummy, while others...not so much! It was so fun to sit and taste each item, then take a picture. I didn't taste EVERYTHING, but most...you'll see why I didn't taste everything! Thanks for the amazing package!!

Everything all laid out, some things not pictured below are the box thing, I think it's a beef dinner that we haven't tried yet. An Okinawa headband thingey, some chocolate suckers, and some very pretty chopsticks.

Can you see what those are? This is why I didn't taste everything! Those are little fish, dehydrated or something, they seem like they're small enough that there isn't much taste...but we feed our lizard some dehydrated grasshoppers and the dryness and crunchiness was to close for me to actually try them. They did get opened and then they mysteriously disappeared, I'm wondering if the dog got to them. Lance did taste them and liked them. He said they tasted like dried up kippered snacks...YUCK! These are really cool. A little note came with them: "The shisa (shisha) dogs protect the entrances to buildings and property in Okinawa. The female dog (mouth closed) keeps in good spirits while the male (mouth open) scares away the bad."

This fan is really neat. It's made of thin wood, with all those intricate pieces cut out. Really neat.

This was one of my favorites! Almost like "candy sticks" or candy cigarettes, but much softer. I LOVE this kind of candy!

Purple kit kat? You betcha! This was actually pretty good too, I think it was some sort of a berry flavor.

We got a lot of pineapple flavored candy. This was good too. Kind of refreshing, fruity candy is always good in my book.

I loved these! Very sour, but really good after the first little bit. It's been a little while, but I think I remember these being really chewy.

Jenson LOVED these! Since I don't know what any of the packaging says, I'm not sure of the flavor, but it reminded me of ruggedness, pine-y sort of flavor.

This was a pretty little cookie filled with sticky jam stuff. They tasted like those wafer cookies, but SOOOO much more softer, it basically crumbled when I touched it.

These were good. Another pineapple treat. I wondered if the name has anything to do with the shape, you know, like your colon. Then I thought, "I wonder if these do something (good or bad) for your colon." Really, I did, I'm weird like that I guess. They were very good, I love anything with a bit of a crunch to it, and as far as I can tell no good or bad was done to the colon.

Chocolate...Mmmm...wrapped, to look like crayons, how cool is that!?

More pineapple! I think this was good, but not something I'd always go for.

This was not good, way too much flavor. It reminded me of something I'd had before, but since I don't like whatever it was that I had before, I don't remember.

These of course, were VERY good. I think we call them Palmiers, (?) not sure though.

I thought these would be really good, but they reminded me of the rice cake thingeys. They were light and airy, pretty fun.

I don't really remember this one, I think because it was so much more like the other brown bread/cookie thing.

I thought this was going to be gum since it's packaged and shaped just like the Bubblicious gum. It turns out it wasn't gum, but chewy, like a starburst, but softer and chewier. Yummy!

It was a lot of fun to get a box full of goodies to try from another country. I love trying new things, you never know what you might end up liking!!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T21:07:00.002-07:00

This shows our family life so well! We're all doing something and usually having a great time!

This is my favorite Christmas card yet! I was trying to get them posed nicely, with "JOY" spelled any way they wanted, except the right way. The card was going to saying something like, "Any way you spell it, we hope your Christmas is filled with Joy." I decided not to do that, it just seemed better to show this as our "normal." I love's Babe's cheeser, I love that Lance is the only one cooperating, only because I bribed them with going to the gas station for treats. Not sure how Jenson did what he did or how I snapped this picture at the exact perfect moment, and that it wasn't blurry!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Jenson is 2!!

2010-12-16T23:30:00.013-07:00

This little guy has such a personality...I LOVE IT!! He is almost always polite, is starting to talk, loves anything that involves wheels or engines, and loves to watch movies on youtube with Daddy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENSON!

I asked Jill from Sprinklebelle Cakes if she could make me a cake with a Tonka truck or Chuck Trucks. I didn't really know what to expect, but when I went to pick them up, I absolutely LOVED the cute little trucks. So adorable!! She is so very talented!

This is Jenson's cute new smile, whenever you ask him to smile, he makes some sort of face like this. Just wait until you see our Christmas cards...oh my heavens I laugh like a crazy woman every time I see them. Of course he needed help blowing out the candles and his two brothers were more than happy to help!

This present came from Grandma. When she first walked in, Jenson could see the monster truck tire school bus and the red car and started saying, "Oooohhh!! AAhhh!!! Wooooo!!!" He started tearing into the package, but stopped to play with the cars...of course!

Opening presents with your tongue out, or in your cheek always helps!

With almost every gift he made this face...love it! Grandma felt bad that her Bullseye and Woody doll wasn't a big hit. This kid loves cars!

There's that face again...

...and again...

...and last time! I have a feeling Christmas morning is going to be sooo fun!

...woops...brothers are side tracking this present opening business!!

Mom and Dad with the Birthday Boy!!

A fun night out!

2010-12-02T00:23:00.003-07:00

We went to Home Depot to grab a few things for work. Adam and Lance go one way, while Babe, Jenson, and I go another. Of course I have the cart, with Jenson strapped in nice and tight. Babe lets me know he has to go to the bathroom…NOW! ugh! Did I mention since it’s so stinkin’ cold Babe decided to wear his bathrobe along with his regular clothes and coat? I didn’t say much about the robe, pick your battles, right?? So, we go to the bathroom, it’s already kind of late and not super busy, so I wait outside the bathroom with Jenson and send Babe into the bathroom. Some lady walks out and smiles, nice and big, like she’s about to laugh. I thought, “ahh..crap…what did Babe say or do to her?” (He went into the women’s.) A few minutes later he comes out with a worried look on his face, I instantly notice his pants are wet, mainly because of the way he is walking. Did I mention the bathrooms are also next to the employee break room?? Oh joy! Anyway, I’m working on untying his robe only to find that he tied it FOUR times, real tight too! Finally I get him situated into the cart on our coats with his robe. Thankfully he wanted a robe, right? But, if he didn’t have the robe he wouldn’t have had to get it off!

We meet up with Adam and Lance and Adam says to me, “What’s wrong?” Really? I just smiled and said, “Nothing,” as I pointed to the wet clothes under the cart. He smiled sweetly back. The kids also got some candy cane thingey’s to line the walk way, of course I was dodging their swings. Finally we left, but we needed something at Wal mart…my absolute FAVE!! The thing we “needed” was a cool knife that Adam had seen and I was just going to check to see if they had it. Well since they did, you have to get it, right!?

So I ask one of the stockers if they could get an associate for me because…of course, the knife Adam wants is locked, the only one of the knives locked, has to be that one. Lance, Jenson and I waited a few minutes and nobody had come to help. I forgot we should buy a child gate, to keep the tree and gifts safe. While we went to get that I thought for sure I’d find someone to help me. Since we walked past the toys, Jenson started screaming…man, that kid LOVES his cars and trucks and motorcycles!! We get back to the sporting goods and still no one seems to have been there, it’s becoming a ghost town. I sighed loudly and told anyone that was listening to follow the crying and come and help me so I could get outta there! I told Lance to stay with Jenson in case someone came by to help while I found help. I went to the electronics and sort of got some help. The guy there called someone to sporting goods…thanks, but I doubt it’ll work.

I get back and Lance looks like he’s about to cry. He sees me and says, “Mom, I had to go to the bathroom, but because of Jenson…” I stopped him because I noticed his pants were wet! Really? Two kids, two stores, on the same night!! What did I do to deserve this? I situated Lance, tied the coat around his waist and he huddled by the cart. Poor kid. A few more minutes go by, the same stocker saw me, now 15 more minutes later with no help, he called for some help and finally about 4 minutes later someone came….MAN! They are sooo lucky they came when they did!!!! I had grabbed a piece of paper and was writing them a little note, next thing I know, I hear, “What’s your question?”

Finally we’re back in the car, complete with lots of greats looks from strangers. Jenson is still screaming because of those darn toys! Spoiled kid! Half way home I think, “we have got to have a toy in this car!” Luckily my prayers were answered, I reached back and the first thing I grabbed was a motorcycle!! WAHOOOO!!! He instantly snatches it from my hand, gets his thumb and…I’m not kidding…was asleep in TWO stinkin’ minutes!! Ahhh…finally quiet!

The events of this story may or may not have actually happened. Just be glad it’s a “story” and you aren’t the main character!

Time for a new stove

2010-12-01T11:18:00.004-07:00

While making dinner a few weeks ago, there was this awful burning smell. Adam kept asking what I was burning. I told him it wasn't our food and to stop worrying about the burning smell, it would be fine! After a couple of days and the smell still lingering we figured we should check behind the stove, maybe there was a fire in the wall or electrical, or something. After we pulled the stove out we didn't see anything strange. Other than the 5 hot wheels, 3 markers, and 1 fridge magnet. That's pretty much normal, right?

We decide to start taking the stove apart, but before we did, I remembered that you could basically lift the whole top off. When we did...we were shocked...and relieved that we knew where the smell was coming from! Nice, huh!? Luckily it's some sort of special non-burning insulation, or something like that. We're thinking that some mice had a nice little snack of the plastic covering on wires. Hope ya liked that, you stupid mouse! We feel blessed that it was only this and not any worse. The smell was horrible, think of a cheap hotel....YUCK!! I'm also so happy for a WHITE (normal colored) appliance instead of that gross yellow/creamish. Any bets on what's next to go? It could be the washer, dryer, microwave, or...I don't even want to say it...furnace! Everything else has been replaced in the last few years. Welcome to home owning!

We got the call last night that Home Depot would be delivering between 7 am and 11 am, with a call about 30 minutes before they arrive. Uh oh...that means a call could possibly be around 6:30...ahh...I don't get up that early! They called us around 7 and by 8 am, the stove was installed and ready for some wonderful baking to be done!

What to do with savings?

2010-11-23T00:48:00.002-07:00

In the first month of school, Lance and his class learned about smoking, and how it's bad for you. They also learned that if you don't smoke a pack a day for a year, you would save $900!! That's insane! I love that they put it more on a child's level, telling them that $900 would buy over 7,000 apples! I loved seeing what Lance drew! It's his new dragster called, "The Early Years." I love that he added some apples too. Gotta be healthy to drive, right!?

Why am I...?

2010-10-20T11:14:00.002-06:00

I LOVE this! Some days, I do not love it, not one bit. Sometimes I think, "Why am I the one that irons everything? Why am I the one that has to find every one's shoes? Why am I the one that is asked where the ties are? Why am I the one that has to find the last black sock?" Some Saturdays I am very productive and I'm able to get everything ready for church on Sunday. Those days usually go pretty smoothly, and we all benefit from it. I love that we are all much more happy, can feel the spirit more, we're willing to help others more, and the list goes on.

After seeing this little display, I thought to myself, "Even though, I am always wondering, 'Why am I...?' I love it, I truly love every minute of it, I need reminding sometimes, but I really love it. I know I won't be doing this forever, and 'this too shall pass.'" I'm not so sure I want it to pass, it's so wonderful to see all my boys dressed up and so eager to learn and show such kindness to others. I'm probably painting a wonderful picture, don't get me wrong, there's been times when I've switched seats so many times in church to sit between the offending child that I don't even remember my original seat.

It's all VERY worth it, and that's what helps us all to keep on!

Tadpoles

2010-10-19T10:03:00.000-06:00

Over the Summer we have "tadpole pond" near our house, we even have two! A boys dream! Some neighbors have caught hundreds of the little guys. I didn't get any pictures when they were the typical tadpole. The kids loved wathcing them transform, just like Transformers, but real. They loved feeding them too.

I loved how tiny they were...sadly they all died. I read online all the things you need to do to keep tadpoles/frogs alive, umm, there's a lot! They can't have tap water, they need bugs to eat when they get to this stage, etc. etc. I tried catching ants, yes, I'm that devoted of a Mom, to try to feed the frogs. Like I said, they all died, sad day, but not as sad as the day I accidentally dropped the kids' goldfish down the sink...with the garbage disposal on. Poor fish didn't have a chance! I felt really bad, but had to laugh!

It's gonna eat us!

2010-10-18T08:43:00.000-06:00

"Oh no! Wance, wook out!!"

"Ahh...the shadow-giant-hand-monster is gonna eat us!!"

Houdini Baby

2010-10-17T00:39:00.004-06:00

I'm so behind blogging about our activities, these are from a family reunion in August! Everyone knows the trying to go on any sort of getaway with a child that still naps and sleeps in a crib, isn't the easiest thing to do. With Jenson being able to climb out of his crib at home, I was already nervous about how and when he'd sleep. So, night number 1 comes and he won't stay in his bed, he wants to come be with us since we're in a new place. Understandable, but I wanted to chat uninterrupted! Well, that didn't happen and w decided to call it a night. Jenson STILL wouldn't stay in his crib, so we thought it might actually work if we tipped it upside down. Poor kiddo....

...He seemed to actually like it, so I thought we might finally get some sleep...

...Not so. He didn't actually lift it this high himself, but he was definitely going to. Finally we just decided to sleep in the same bed.

We have recently put the crib away completely, separated the bunk beds, and now two of the kids are sharing a bed. They love to push the two twin beds together, so it's one giant bed, which I guess means they're all sleeping in the same bed. But, it works, and THAT'S what matters!!

Dentist Day

2010-10-06T23:16:00.009-06:00

Babe went to the dentist today! What an experience it was! I learned a very valuable lesson, education isn't free though! We started the day by dropping off Jenson at a neighbors, then Lance at school, then Adam, Babe, and I headed to the dentist. I had a few road rage issues...really, do the people need to go exactly the stinkin' speed limit? Don't they know I'M late? Sheesh.

Anyway, we get there and of course, I had already filled out all the paper work, but left it at home...lame! I fill out the papers while Babe plays the xbox, how cool is that? Then the dentist came out, then the anesthesiologist comes out and talks to us. He was great! He told me to hold Adam on my lap with my legs between mine, and hold his arms. All while doing that a nurse comes out with a small basket asking him which toy he'd like. Then the anesthesiologist says, "Ready Mom?" Ummm...yeah. He says, "Adam this will (sticks him in the hip) hurt!" Adam yells, we get his attention back to the toys and within 2 minutes we were trying to get him to pick a toy, a minute later his eyes were glazed over. So weird, but if your child needs surgery, I much prefer this option rather than holding them down and screaming while the mask is on them.

Adam and I got to go back to the recovery room. We tried waking Babe, but not much would wake him at first. He looks awake in the pic, but I promise, he isn't, he's so out of it. Crazy. Also, the anesthesiologist asked if he had asthma, I said I mentioned it to his doctor, but wasn't positive, even though they gave us an inhaler because I said he had a cough. The anesthesiologist told Adam and I that he had a definite diagnosis. I chuckled and thought, "yeah, cavities!" He told us that he definitely has asthma because his saturation levels were in the 80's and they only see that in sedated patients that have asthma. He seemed pretty confident, so I'll go with that. It makes sense, thinking back.

Aww...a cute little teddy bear and a case for the teeth!

Sleep, sleep, and more sleep!!

The teeth, and yes, the brown/missing part on the left is a cavity. I know, I know, lame Mom! :(

He was so proud of all the metal in his mouth. When I said he had SIX metal teeth he got a big grin on his face and said, "Yesss!! You only have one!" I told him the goal is to have ZERO, he still didn't care.

We wrote a note to the tooth fairy asking if we can keep these teeth, since they're special teeth, and his first ones. He also drew the tooth fairy a picture of his go kart.

His recovery so far has gone so well! The dentist called us later asking how everything was. Babe's biggest complaint was that he couldn't eat everything he wanted, like cheeseburgers, popcorn, etc. When I told the doctor that he said if he wants it, give it to him, just let him dictate what he wants. I'm good with that!

Through out the day Babe said and did some pretty funny things:

* "I went to the dentist today!" He said this so matter of fact, as if Adam and I didn't already know.

*I went to the dentist today, that is far far away and a long car ride, that's why I have to pee now."

* He got up by himself when he wasn't supposed to, so I quickly went to him to help him back to the couch. He was too quick for me and started walking back to the couch, straight-legged, and stomping. Another time I saw him right as he got off the couch and he spun around and almost fell.

* When I held him and walked around with him, he still couldn't hold up his upper body, so he would sway back and forth, almost tipping us both over!

* "I can still do this!!" He did this as he hopped twice, then I made him stop. He also added, "Look, I can do this too!" as he started spinning in circles. Uhh..yeah Babe, not the best idea!

*Adam was talking to Babe about the tooth fairy coming and he said, "Yeah, her might bring me a toy or money!"

* One of the first responses he had to us in the car was when I told him that he has no more cavities and just regular check ups with the dentist. He lifted an arm slowly and said, "woooohoooo!"

Ready, Set, GO!!

2010-09-22T00:02:00.002-06:00

One of the things the boys did all Summer long, was to race each other throughout our backyard. They always had so much fun doing it. I'm going to be sad when these days are gone. At least I will be able to watch their kids doing things like this...I hope!!

And...he's off!

I love the sun rays in this picture, and of course, Babe's expression!

Round 3: Ready, Set, GO!!!

Lance's Baptism

2010-09-05T20:40:00.007-06:00

Yesterday was an exciting day for our family! Lance became the newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So wonderful, everything worked out so well! We measured out the baptismal font, made sure the water was at a good level so Adam wouldn't be drowning, had extra people to help him in and out of the font, and the list goes on. I was getting a little tired of going through our check list, so when Adam and Lance were talking about how they might do this or that instead because plan A and plan B might not work, etc. etc. I got irritated and said, "It will be fine! No matter what it will be fine. Even if it doesn't happen tomorrow, it'll work out the way it needs to! I know it will work as planned!" Adam understood my side then and told Lance that "Mom is right, everything will work out," I loved hearing that and I think Lance, as well as Adam did too. After that we just laid back, got some food stuff ready, then went to bed.

Lance and his Dad

Some of the wonderful men in our lives. Everyone pictured here was in the confirmation circle. I love this picture. Such a beautiful day for a wonderful baptism!

I tried to trick Lance, he got Rice a Roni, brown gravy packets...

...some freezer jam, cake mix...

...and finally scriptures with a case! He said he didn't care that he was getting food. I was hoping he'd be a little disappointed, then completely shocked by getting the scriptures. I think he was relieved that there was something good in there, but he doesn't always let on to what he's really feeling.

Another great picture!

First Day of Kindergarten!

2010-09-01T22:18:00.003-06:00

Oh my! I am really getting old, to have TWO kids in school, sheesh! I know, I know, wait until I have all three in school...it won't be long.

He was so excited to go to school, he asked when it was time to go, several times, and we have morning kindergarten! He also said, "This is going to be so exciting!!!"

As he was hanging up his backpack I think he was trying to see who was calling his name, or maybe he was just too excited about the play area. I would love to know what they were talking about! We're going to be taking this cute girl to school, so last week, we met her and her parents, very cute family! Anyway, I told Adam that maybe she will be his girlfriend, joking obviously, and he said, "Yeah, her is!!" The way he said it was so matter of fact, and like I should have already known this!

I think he is going to do great in school. I love that we have so many in our neighborhood in the same class, I think it will help him. I'm so happy he is finally in school, he is such an outgoing little guy, I feel that he really needs this. He loved his first day, they talked about the moon and drew a monster after reading about a monster. The monster that he drew had 6 eyes, a spikey tail, a belly button, and BLOODY arms! Oh my!

Bonneville part 4

2010-08-30T13:38:00.004-06:00

Woohoo! Last part of our extended vacation! Since we were short a car the last trip, we had to drive out one. last. time! It was such a wonderful time knowing it was our last trip out, considering everything went as planned. Nothing should go wrong when all we need to do is hook up the trailer and drive out, right? Seriously, it's a 5 minute job, and SURPRISE...NOTHING went wrong! We even got home "early," at 1 am! Since we drove all that way, we had to go out to the Salt one more time, it would definitely be a wasted trip if we didn't. Speedweek was over, so it was us and 4 or 5 photographers. Miles and miles for 20 people...AWESOME! So, we drove out a ways and Adam said we should let Lance drive, so we did. He loved it and was actually very careful, he even worked the brake and gas well, no stomping on them! Cool close up shot of the Salt, it's a little wet, so it looks like this when it's wet and hasn't been packed down by all the cars.

All flat...all salt...miles and mile of it...love it!

Babe collected some salt from the car, since it was wet it packed well into a "saltball!"

At last, our 2010 trip is done. See ya, next year!

Bonneville part 3

2010-08-29T19:40:00.010-06:00

Onto our third time now! YEAH! We recruited one of our awesome Uncle's! Uncle Randy! He is a trailer expert, he buys old trailers that nobody cares about, fixes them up and sells them to others. Soo...he is just the person we needed. This trip has been insane, but a lot of blessings have come from it. We got to hang out with Uncle Randy! We met him at his shop, hooked up a trailer and off we went! I saw Babe using one of the tie downs as a cell phone. He'd slam it shut, then flip it open and "dial" another call.

Uncle Randy wanted to try out the tote goat. He loved it!

Free as a bird...a very naked bird! I love this picture, what fun would it be to run around with nothing on your mind except for the next object you see? At Uncle Randy's shop there was a huge puddle that the boys decided to play in, Jenson's clothes were soaked, so he was clothes-less on the way out, by the time we got there it was time to change his diaper. I decided to let him run for a minute as the sun was going down. Here's that piece I was talking about...somewhere in there. We ended up with our little lantern as our light. We have a power cord converter for our car, it plugs into the power thingey, then has a regular plug on the end. We used that to use our dremel to cut this "piece" off, then it shorted out the fuse, so we were basically stuck again. Luckily a "neighbor" came over and asked if we needed a generator or anything else. We all said, "yeah!" Turns out that guy was a diesel mechanic...another wonderful blessing! We were finally able to grind/cut the piece off and put everything back together quickly! How wonderful!

Just before all of the generator stuff Lance flew over his handlebars of the tote goat. Poor kid, he was absolutely miserable. I felt horrible because before he started riding he said, "What about my helmet?" I said, "Well...you'll be alright. Sorry we left it at home." Lesson learned...by Mom! He bit his tongue, scratched up his bottom lip, bloodied his nose and ended up not being able to eat for a couple of days...besides pudding and that sort of stuff.

He was sooo miserable, seriously lesson learned by Mom! He also scraped up both of his arms and his entire chest and tummy!

Four of his teeth got knocked loose, but no worries about that, they are all baby teeth! His poor bottom lip! The swelling was really bad, but was actually 90% gone the next morning! As you can tell he wasn't happy. :(

Babe found a moth and became friends with it...silly! As you can see he found some more mud! Awesome!

Just as we were getting to a very frustrating part in repairing the trailer, Jenson walked up to Uncle Randy and out of the blue gave him a hug. I made him do it again to get a picture, we all loved it. It's amazing how such a small child, that is running around seeming like they are only thinking of what to play with next, can be so in tune with the situation and know when someone needs a hug. LOVE IT!

Jenson wanted to help too! (He has some clothing on now!) The red cup is our "hub cap" so we can make it home, it just needs to keep the dirt out, I think it did it's job we were able to get it home, but not without another trip out there the next day. Uncle Randy had sold his car that pulls the trailers that hour before we all went out, so we all rode together. That was nice for two reasons, I got to get a little sleep on the way back, and we got to chat with Uncle Randy, he is such a fun and neat guy! (Adam's Aunt was remarried a few years ago).

Bonneville part 2

2010-08-28T15:54:00.008-06:00

The next day we had to drive back to the Salt Flats, get to the parts store to pick up our part that was finally delivered, put it on the trailer, load up and go! So easy, right? Hmm... We actually made it to the shop with about 7 minutes until closing. We couldn't leave any earlier because we had soo much work to catch up on, just being on vacation, and Adam had to do every extra thing he could do to get slightly ahead for the next day. Everything was going well, we let the kids play, I put some things away, took the poles out of the tent, etc. I did as much as I could without actually loading the trailer. I took Jenson for a ride on the tote goat, he loved it! He was fighting to get my hand off the throttle grip. We finally compromised by letting him have his hand on it too. He loved to do a little boogie on the thing too, that wasn't so fun, it started making us swerve and I'd always have to put my feet out and make sure we didn't fall/crash!

Oh yeah! Everything is going so well, everything is just about greased up and ready to put back on! So glad I have a husband that can do repairs!

Keep up the good work!

There was some piece we needed to get off, we tried to hammer it off, but no luck. Adam thought maybe if we borrowed a torch we would be able to heat the metal up, making it expand and slip it off that way. So, off I went to a camp or two to ask if they had a torch. One camp told me that I "wouldn't find anything like that out here." Really? Guess I've never been here before...duh. That camp also told me to just unbolt the axle and take it into town in the morning to this awesome shop they knew and they could fix it....yeah...you don't know my whole story, so that just won't work! Finally we poured some gas out of the tote goat, put it in a cup, lit the BBQer, got a piece of paper and...yes, we were going to light the axle and cup of gas on fire! WOOHOO!! Well, turns out we can't even light gas on fire. HELLO!? It's FLAMMABLE! It will light even if it's near open flame...right!? Not for us. I like to think it didn't work because we were being watched over and it was possibly going to go all wrong! (imagine that!) After sitting around for an hour, and it's dark now, Adam poured the cup of gas on the piece, picked up the hammer, gave it couple of smacks, and it was off in literally 30 seconds!Sheesh.

Now, we're ready to put the whole thing back together. We tried to put the pieces on, but they just weren't going all the way. We couldn't figure out why. We knew there was a piece in the way, but it seemed as if that piece were part of the actual axle. So we started using a screwdriver and hammer to twist the nut on. The nut had some slots on it, so we were able to use a screwdriver. We figured if we twisted it on tight enough the whole assembly would fit on there and we could go.

At this point, it's about 10 pm and getting REALLY windy! Probably 50 mph gusts...not fun! I had to help Adam earlier, then fix the kids dinner. Did I mention we didn't have dinner yet? Their dinner consisted of pop tarts and granola bars. YUMMY! Since I had to help earlier, I had to get the tent down, not fun in a wind storm. We had some beefy stakes, so pulling them out was hard. When I pulled the first one out, the wind caught under the tent and yanked the stake up, slicing my hand. I started getting blood everywhere. Finally Adam yelled, "make Lance sit ont he tent." That helped so much. We were able to just shove the tent in the car, load up and start headed off the dirt. Half way through though, we had to stop, I couldn't see anything, except the dirt blowing sideways...that was scary, knowing there's a canal, and a road coming up.

We were finally on the road and out to get some dinner. I had to stop at the store to get some eye wash, my eye had so much salty dirt in it, it was killing me! Arby's never tasted so good! We got home at THREE AM!! Knowing that we'd have to go back out the next day!

Again...to be continued....

Back to school!

2010-08-25T12:04:00.004-06:00

Wow! I was a little emotional thinking that Lance is in SECOND grade, I can't believe he's old enough for that! I can't believe I'm old enough for that! He won't admit that he's happy about being back to school, but he woke up early and was ready to go without any asking on my part. I think he's going to love his teacher and that she'll be great! I've heard she's great, so I'm really happy about that!!

He actually smiled! It will be interesting to see how much he grows this year.

This is a framer! LOVE IT! Completely captures who he is.

As we were walking out he got into his dragster and said, "Haha, okay, I'm going to school now Mom! Bye!" Yeah right, kiddo!

Adam tried out the older kids play ground. When he tried this ladder thing that twists and turns he said, "This might be bad." Umm...yeah!

Of course Jenson had to try the slide! WEEEE!!!

Bonneville 2010 Part I

2010-08-22T18:48:00.020-06:00

Just so you don't have to read through all 3 or 4 posts (coming soon) I'll give you the short version of our trip:

Friday: Supposed to leave
Saturday: finally leave after noon, realize trailer has an issue
Sunday: have some fun, go to Salt Talks, try to find a spare trailer part
Monday: order trailer part, go see some cars
Tuesday: leave, (vacation should be done at this point.)
Wednesday: drive back out, come home
Thursday: drive back out, come home
Friday: drive back out, come home...finally done!

Almost everything that could go wrong with this trip, did. We still do have our health and our lives, although some blood was lost.

We planned on leaving EARLY Friday, but because of lots of orders (blessing) we couldn't make it out on time. I cried, Lance cried, it's our vacation and we'll cry if we want to! We want to go to the SALT, man!

We finally arrived probably around 5 or so and we can start setting up our "new home." HOORAY. Jenson loved helping, such a cutie! Of course, right when we get there, the kids find the same friends from last year...how cool is that!? Notice they all have motor bikes, except Babe. He actually could keep up quite well, considering, and he didn't even care that they all had faster bikes than him. He was just happy to be riding! On this trip, we knew we'd be meeting some wonderful people. Adam and I think of them as "A-Lister stars" in the Bonneville world. Anyway, Lance had started a candy business to buy a helmet for his dragster that he'd be getting. Between another job, jobs around the house, birthday money and the candy business he earned more than $100!! Not bad for an 8 year old. We spotted a small white truck driving around and knew they were looking for us. Kind of hard to miss a small truck with a dragster hanging out the back!

Since Lance was already on his tote goat, we told him to catch up to Jack and show him where camp is. Lance pulled up alongside them and Jack asked, "Do you know where a guy in a wheelchair would be?" Lance just shook his head and started showing him the way...then he went past our camp, around a few others, then finally he saw me and led them to the right camp. I think it's such a neat picture, showing Lance leading Jack, Sami, and the dragster to the right place.

Cool dude! Sunglasses are pretty much required.

Babe found the water I had emptied from the coolers. This "mud" is a different kind of mud, it's very slippery and in a car you can get stuck easily. The kids decided it was a blast to play in, what fun would that be to play in slick, salty, mud!?

I'm sure it's even more fun to rub it in your eyes!

After the eye rubbing incident, it was time to be done and wash up! Grandma gave them both a "bath." So cute!

We finally made it out to the Salt on Sunday, first time since we'd been there. I thought this car was pretty cool because of the one seater.

We went out again on Monday with Jack...Jack basically gives you an all access pass to anything. Everyone knows him. He and his wife are some really fun people, we're so happy we got to meet them. The guy in the yellow is with http://www.teamvesco.com/, they also are an amazing group of people. They've been racing since 1933!! They let Lance get up on their trailer and basically work on the car and see all the ins and outs. Pretty cool!!

Babe wasn't there because...my Mom thought it would be more fun for to take him to Wendover...ummm..yeah. I wasn't entirely happy about it, but Adam wanted to go. Then when we got home and Babe saw these pictures he asked where he was. He wasn't too happy with the answer.

The whole fam with Jack and Sami! We're going to have some great experiences!

Love this! My spot is between Jenson and Adam...good times!

Such a cool kid!

Adam after he got some bad news! :(

After we realized the bearings were GONE in the trailer we started calling around for the right parts. They all wanted part numbers, we said, "Dude, did you miss that part about the bearings being ground away to nothing...we have NO numbers!" Finally Adam called the trailer manufacturer and ordered the parts! HOORAY!! There is an end in sight! They could even overnight them for us, man, this is almost too good to be true...turns out it was. It wasn't the fault of the shipper, but UPS basically put it out to be on the truck and left it. Well, that's just completely awesome. We were planning on fixing the trailer Tuesday, packing up, and leaving to make it Adam's parents house by 6.

We decided since it was such a crazy week so far, we just might have some luck and see if the parts had been shipped to the parts store. No luck, not surprising, but it was worth a shot. Instead since Adam was driving with the stick thingeys and the parking lot is crazy he ended up crashing into a lady. I felt soo bad. It didn't do any damage, but I told her to call us for whatever damage so we could pay. He only hit into her tire, so everything seems to be fine, but geez, did we really need another issue??

So, we move on to the next plan. We'll just pack up some stuff and go. Well, we needed gas, as in, we couldn't make it to the next town. Went to get gas and the power is out. Oh well, we'll just drive into Wendover and get some gas, we need some lunch anyway. Again, too good to be true. ALL power was out, actually one or two casinos had a big enough generator. We checked every gas station in town, finally we just sat at a pump, just over an hour later the power was back on!!

Finally everything was moving, we could go! Now we're about 20 minutes away from home and I asked Adam if Jeremy, who used the key to get into our house, had put it back where we had put it. When I said this Adam said, "CRAP!" Only, it wasn't crap...he told Jeremy to take the key because we'd head through Salt Lake to get home. NICE! Now we haven't showered for 3-4 days and we're having family pictures in about an hour?? Luckily, we had a window unlocked so we were able to get in that way.

We arrived to the family get together a little over an hour late. It was so nice to see his three siblings that live out of state. His family is amazing, love them all!

To be continued...

Eight??

2010-08-10T22:21:00.004-06:00

Wow! I can't believe my first child is EIGHT!! We had a little friend birthday party for him, it was a lot of fun even though we ran out of water balloons...OOPS! We actually didn't run out, I thought filling up 150 would be a decent amount and if we ran out then I could just fill as we go. Well...of course that didn't work. I had about 5 games for the kids to do, and they were done with ALL of the games in 17 minutes!! I guess I'm not the best party planner! After I told the kids they could just have a water fight, well, the balloons were gone in about .008 seconds. I tried filling as they went but I constantly had 5 hands waiting for a balloon. Finally we just grabbed some cups, that worked better.

Trying to get all the kids to line up, not throw a balloon and look at the camera...pretty much impossible!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Splash Park

2010-08-05T00:05:00.011-06:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to a splash park in Riverton, it was a blast! Lance asked how deep the water was, when I told him there wasn't any he told me he didn't want to go. I told him he had to any way, I'm such a mean Mom! Babe and Jenson, they wouldn't care, they were just excited to go!

First we had to have home made lunchables. Thanks Grandma!!

The splash park is called "Old Farm." It really was a lot of fun, perfect for my kids ages, free, and not too many people!

Lance

Adam

Jenson

Lance had a blast putting a cup over the sprayer, he ended up getting a fat lip when the cup came down and hit him! When my Mom and I jokingly told him it was time to go home, especially because he didn't want to go in the first place, he was set on convincing us to stay and play longer. Such a fun, sweet kid!

Time for another snack!

Some guy brought his RC airplane, eventually a bunch of kids were running underneath the plane and when it crashed, they all ran for it. It was so funny to see all these kids running with worried looks on their faces.

Lance was "helping" Jenson with the fish squirters. You could turn them and squirt unsuspecting Moms that stood in your way!

Adam's Go-Kart

2010-08-02T22:00:00.001-06:00

We bought Adam a go-kart so he can start racing. It's such a cute little thing, and we got a great deal on it, makes it even sweeter, and a tiny bit more justifiable!

He calls it "Blood Racer!"

All of his gear, he'll need a new helmet, but had to have it with a dirt bike one, (it's all we have for now.) I love when he turns his head to the side, you can see a giant, mean looking skull looking at you.

Babe's karting shoes and Dad's karting shoes. Awesome!

We can't wait for his first race, it's going to be a blast! We went to the church parking lot a few nights ago and tried it out, he seemed to really like it, but then said, "Turn it off, I'm done." He was completely done, but wanted to ride again the next day. It had us worried that he might not want to do it after having the actual test drive.

I like to tease Adam that he is going to be such a "stage Dad" he laughs and then adds, "yeah but wouldn't you love this type of sport to be 'pushed' in?" Yeah, that's true I would. It's really neat in our situation that Adam gets to "live vicariously through the boys' racing." I mean that in a good way! That's why I can tease him about being such a stage Dad! :)

Don't Try This At Home

2010-08-01T22:00:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while we'll get out the tote-goat and let Lance ride. He does really well on it, knows when to slow down, when to move to the side, when to go slow because another kid is getting close, etc. He doesn't however, know how to stop the "Dad influence." I'm going to have to work on that one with BOTH of them, then again, maybe I'll just let them be boys!

At least they had a 5 second team meeting.

Wheeee!!! Boys (including Dad's) want a little fun, right!?

4th of July

2010-07-31T22:00:00.000-06:00

Again...a bit late, but better late than never, right!? Every year we have an awesome street party! Everyone brings their own meat, a side to share, and their own sparklers for the kids. It works out great for everyone and it's a blast. We love the conversation, watching the kids fight over this bike or that skate board. Finally when it's dark the bigger fireworks begin, so much fun!!

I thought it would be cool to get a picture of Lance holding the sparkler, I was right it is a really cool picture, but I'm so glad I snapped it when I did...he kept inching closer and closer to my face! Little punk!

Boondocks

2010-07-30T22:00:00.000-06:00

First of all, it was fun, BUT I feel like we got totally ripped off, I went in with a bad attitude, so I really, really, don't like Boondocks. But, like I said, we did have fun!!

VROOM VROOM, "You wanna see horsepower??"

Squirt, squirt, squirt!

Babe had a little bit of a harder time steering and squirting everyone else, but he still loved it.

Nice shot Lance!!

The games were pretty cool. Especially the racing ones, as you can see by the expression on his face.

Lance, Grandma, and Adam

We liked the food, but not the price. We were also starving, so I'm sure that has something to do with liking the food. Obviously it's going to cost more, but THAT much more?? No thank you, I'll starve. Seriously, dino nuggets from Costco, a thin frozen pizza, and a hamburger worse than McDonald's for almost $38!!

Just Chillin'!

2010-07-29T22:00:00.000-06:00

Jenson loves to put his feet up! When we eat a meal, he sticks his cute little feet up, LOVE IT!!

Last t-ball game....a month ago!

2010-07-28T23:31:00.009-06:00

Like the title says, this was Babe's last t-ball game, it was actually about a month ago. Sad to say, but this season was horrible! I heard about coaches on other teams not wanting to do practices, so they'd just cancel, Babe didn't like t-ball unless he was batting, and there were soo many cancelled games and practices due to weather. Just a weird season! It was great to experience it all though!

SWING!! Nice hit Babe!!!

RUN!!! Woohoo, he made it to first!

Coming in for home! Nice job!

Now the out takes...er, out field. "Down to the ground, ready....?"

"You're down!"

"Hum dee dum..."

Babe's cheering team

He's so proud of his medal and award!

A couple of games we didn't have his shoes, one game we didn't have his mitt, so this game we made it with everything but his hat. He's trying to carry his medal, award, snacks, shoes, mitt, and batting helmet.

We were all glad to have the games be done! We've had so much going this year and with the way Babe played, he seemed to hate it, so I'm not sure if he'll even want to play next year.

Crazy Weekend!

2010-07-19T23:52:00.002-06:00

This past weekend was crazy, but also full of blessings, as every day is. It first started on Thursday, I went to scout camp, and while that's fun, it's hard to leave Adam to deal with the business, 3 kids, one of which was snotty, teething, and just plain old grumpy. On top of that he had the 3 employees, and of course friends in and out, dinner to make, etc. After being with five 10 year old boys for 8 hours, then coming home to my own 3 boys, and waking up the next day to employees, the noise and too many bodies was just too much! Just so everyone knows it has nothing to do with who the people are, just too much movement and noise, ya know? I wanted to get out, so off in the car we go, the kids usually fall asleep, Adam sometimes too, so it was nice and quiet! Ahhh... On our way back we stopped at the store for a few things, mostly things that need to get in the fridge pretty quickly, especially on a hot, hot day! When I came out of the store I could hear our car, as I got closer Adam had a concerned look on his face. He told me to look under the hood to see if I could see anything. Okay, first of all, the typical girl, me, won't notice anything weird under the hood unless it's spraying, violently shaking, or the engine is completely missing. So when I look under the hood I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Of course, I'm sure if I knew a little more about cars I would have noticed. I got back in the car and started driving home, about 20 seconds after turning at the light, it felt like something popped off and the noise miraculously stopped!! I was happy, no noise=no problem...right!? Yeah, not so much. Adam immediately yells, "pull over!" The temperature shot all the way up. Oh good, I started having flashbacks of our Maxima, almost the same thing. We then called one of our bajillion wonderful neighbors to come and get us, then drive us back to the car because did I mention this was like the one time we didn't bring Adam's wheelchair??? Duh! Luckily, like I said, our neighbors are wonderful and seemed to not mind. We even picked up another neighbor on our way out of the neighborhood to help tow the car to the shop. He said that he and another neighbor, (we're on neighbor number 6 now, a few grabbed a couple of ropes) were going to work on cars all day and they wouldn't mind "taking a look," which actually means, "we'll fix it!" They ended up spending the WHOLE Saturday working on it so we'd have it for church, otherwise we would have walked to church, in 95 degree heat...not fun, nobody would have sat next to me! Speaking of church, only 3 of us made it, I couldn't find Babe's pants...I do not doubt for one second that he stripped them off in the back yard and tossed them over one of the 3 fences we share with neighbors. By now I'm sure the pants are faded, or I'll go and do the first load of laundry and they'll be the first piece of clothing I grab. Even though I looked through all the clothes 3 times! Also on Saturday, I was going to run my second 5k, I was excited! I was going to let a dumb car problem stand in my way! I text my neighbor to ask for a ride, she of course said it wasn't a problem, (wonderful neighbor #7). I ended up making them wait, and still didn't go. I got a text at 6:43 saying they were here...I didn't open my eyes until 7:15ish and saw the text then. I jumped up to the window, by some chance they might still be there. She said her husband would be leaving in 20 minutes and I could ride with him. AWESOME. I RUN to the shower, finish showering in like 9 minutes, get dressed, look outside and his car is gone. Bummer! So I sit in the living room reading and I notice out of the corner of my eye a van go by! It was him, I didn't miss my ride, of course he'd be in the van with the smaller kids, oh man, I did miss my ride! So because of my lameness, I missed not one ride, but BOTH rides!

Anyway to make this post not so boring here are some pics of the car issues. Above is the serpentine belt, it shouldn't have so many cracks in it....oops! Next up is the water pump, which actually, in my opinion, is NOT a water pump. A pump is something that pushes air or water into something. I guess maybe this does, but it looks more like a fan or star to me. You? That deep gouge on the smooth area, by the star points isn't supposed to be there....OOPS!

We also got a new calling at church, teaching the 5 year old, so around 3 pm, I go searching for our manual, they don't have it ready...that kind of sucks. I'd like to be prepared, I finally got a manual, but not a class list, schedule, and whatever else I might need. Oh well, we'll figure it all out!

Everything of course worked out, it was just one of those couple of days that are crazy! We are so blessed to live in such a wonderful neighborhood and be surrounded by so many wonderful families and friends. We love each and everyone of you!!!

Have a GREAT week everyone!

Lucas Oil Off Road

2010-07-02T13:00:00.001-06:00

This race was at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele. Super fun race, awesome to see all the cars before and after...huge difference!

I don't remember what these were called, (of course)! It was awesome to see them go almost on two wheels, then onto a jump. It seems like it would be soo fun!

This was kind of cool and creative. Above the teeth it said, "Bite me!"

I love seeing our flags! I love our mountains too! I feel so blessed to live here!

WHEEEEE!!!! Doesn't that look like so much fun!?

This truck caught on fire, but because the driver pulled off and shut off the engine, the fire went out on it's own very quickly. It was funny to see the driver jump out of the truck, I think he was scared, he landed on his feet, then stumbled and fell down. Poor guy! At least he was okay, the truck on the other hand, I don't know how much damage, but obviously there's some!

So, we're walking around and on the speakers I hear the announcer say, "...Menzies Motorsports..." REALLY?? That's awesome! That's my Grandma's last name...now I just need to find out how I'm related and I bet they'll ask me to be one of their drivers!

Adam HAAAAAAATES these "smart" cars. They don't seem too smart if you get into an accident! Anyway, he wanted to prove how small they really are! It totally looks like his arms have been stretched!

Corners kick up a lot of dirt!

Another jump! Wooo-eeee!

Some would come down pretty hard on the front end, as you can see!

And some come down REALLY hard and start leaking oil every where and break the tire arms/A-arms/whatever that bar is called!

Time to cool off!

2010-07-01T13:00:00.000-06:00

Gotta grab your 4 wheeler out of the fridge and do a quick cool down!

What would you choose?

2010-06-30T16:09:00.003-06:00

On a wonderful, hot Summer day would you choose a nice refreshing dip in a CLEAN pool...

...or to act like piggies and play in the MUD??

It's obvious what they would choose!!

Nitro Jam 2010

2010-06-27T21:22:00.018-06:00

WOW!! What a race this was! Totally nuts, loud, soul shaking, torture!! In August Lance might be getting a junior dragster when we visit "the salt." It was neat to see exactly what it would be like, up close and personal! This race was a really neat experience...when the boys get old enough to not need me at the races, I'm not so sure that I'll go. Maybe if I'm completely deaf by then. If not, I'm not so sure.

Ear protection required!! I was shocked at how many parents were there with the kiddos with NO protection. You could still hear REALLY well with headphones on, I didn't try without, so I don't know how much louder it was, but trust me, it was loud!!

This truck is the fastest in the world, I think about 330 mph in the 1/4 mile! Stinkin' nuts how fast these things can be! Of course, when you have THREE jet engines on your truck, I'm sure it helps!

This bike was pretty cool. I love the kickstand, it's an arm laying on the ground. People are so creative!

Doesn't that just look mean??

The kids got to sit on this bike, of course they loved it!

My turn! VROOOM!!

This is a junior dragster, it isn't THE junior dragster, but this is what Lance will be racing...IF we can get everything we need. Should be fun, if I didn't think we were a racing family, I will now!

Babe trying it out!

Jenson...I think he LOVED it.

Cute picture of the older boys and Daddy.

Although, of course I have a rant. Notice the big blue square, you know the one with the white wheelchair guy painted in it? Yeah, what does that mean to you? Hey, you're right, it means if somebody comes over in a wheelchair they get that spot! I WAS sitting where the punk boy in blue-green pants is. That is until his two adult people were sitting there, then one gets up to have two kids sit in her spot and slowly start inching over more and more. I don't like being touched over and over again by people that act like I'm not there. Did I mention they stood the whole time? Blocking Adam's view? Umm..we paid for our tickets, we're going to see the race dag nammit!

These were pretty cool to watch...LOUD LOUD LOUD!! Every time these type of dragsters would come by I'd bury my head, shut my eyes real tight, clench my teeth and wonder when the 5 seconds were over. I think a good way of describing it would be, imagine if you're on an airplane that is crashing. I imagine that would be really loud, then BAM, you're dead. That's what I thought each time, "When are the 5 seconds up and when am I dead, I can't take this abuse!" Seriously, if I were to be tortured I would suck, I'd give up so quickly. I used to think I was so tough, now I'm just a big wuss!

This isn't an accident, it's just that big semi about to take off. It was just letting off a little steam, that's all...

...and maybe a little more...

...And there it goes! Man, these were scary too! Basically you're 50 feet (is that how far it looks) away from an airplane taking off. That seems a little scary to me! Amazing to see an idea put together, so much money and time!

We bought these cute little dragster cars that light up, play music and move. The kids loved them. They even made a new little friend and they all started racing, then a couple more kids joined in. There was only one problem, a bunch of people are walking...on the WALKWAY kids!

Since we are in a wheelchair we have to go across the start line to get to the parking lot, instead of up and over on the sky walk. After the last dragster we ran to get across before the Semi's were there...well we didn't make it, so we got an up close peek at the trucks. Yes, there were two showing their stuff. INSANE! Adam and Lance went up pretty close to the fence, when the trucks were blowing out the fire their clothes were moving from the force of it blowing out! Jenson, Babe and I were back pretty far and the heat was still sooo intense! So bright too!

This race was super fun, but definitely torturous! I honestly, would like to experience it being deaf. I know you'd definitely still FEEL it. I wonder how much your touch and sight can make up for hearing at something like this.

Hiking Timpanogos

2010-06-17T06:00:00.001-06:00

About a week ago my sister and I took the kids hiking up the Timpanogos trail. They loved it. They all did really well! My sister wanted to stop every 10 seconds, on some parts I don't blame her, there's some crazy spots! I wanted to just push through it though, oh and the fact that if there was a red painted line on the trail you couldn't stop there, those areas were high rock fall areas! About to start our hike! The weather was perfect, not too hot, and a nice breeze once in a while. Babe kept saying "Holy trap! (crap) We're up sooo high!"

These tree roots were pretty cool, so of course we had to get a picture! Down...down...down...SCARY! I dropped my water bottle, not here, but someplace else and it just kept rolling! I was afraid it would hit someone on the trail below us. I was a little nervous taking the kids, which is why Babe had the doggy backpack/leash. He actually only wore it about 1/2 the time and still did great. Being a Mom, and responsible for 3 little lives I said, "get away from the edge!" about 2,846 times.

Pretty white flowers along the way.

These were fun to see also! I want to go back and see them bloom!

Yeah! A rest area, right behind us...a big cliff!

This tree grew in a cool way. It made a great little seat for Babe.

Woohoo!! We made it to the cave entrance!

Some cool stalactites.

I forgot what these were called, but they're amazing. All over the place!

Scary! We had to duck under the dinosaur! Ducking under this with Jenson on me, was no easy task.

I think this was called "carmel falls" The line up at the top where it all of a sudden starts, I think is a fault line. The Ranger said we're safe here if there were to be an earthquake. I just wonder how we would have gotten down!

Very amazing views!

We took a little break and I noticed Jenson's leg. He must have gotten that inside the cave, it was actually kind of hard to get off!

Some more really neat flowers. We met up with a park ranger and walked the rest the way down. She shook this over us and said, "This is what it's like when you get married and they throw rice on you!"

I thought it would be cool to get a picture of me "holding" the mountain up, at the last second I thought I might have gross, sweaty arm pits, so in this picture I'm saying, "Wait! Are my pits sweaty??" And of course, Tori just had to snap the pic then!

At least she got a good one though!

Hiking Timp was amazing, scary, and such a good work out! We'll definitely be going again.

Making things exciting!

2010-06-16T15:47:00.002-06:00

Well, they'll definitely be exciting!! I let Lance and Adam choose the menu for a day and I'll make what they wanted for the family. I thought it would be lots of fun, not too many rules. Pretty much the only rule I had was that it couldn't be a restaurant. Well, the plan back fired! Adam's list: B: waffles, eggs, bacon L: apples and pineapple D: chicken, rice, and beans Lance's list: B: eggs woles cimeon toast moffens with butter L: sand witch macerone and chese stake smased patoas ribs hotdogs brown rice white rice and patos smased (twice, I guess?) bacen wraped beef D: Chicken I think I should add a little surprise in it for them! They should have to cook and clean everything up!

Memorial Day 2010

2010-06-11T14:45:00.014-06:00

On Memorial Day we went to Miller Motorsports Park to watch the Superbike Races...AWESOME! This event is televised worldwide, so it's kind of a big deal. It's motorcycles, which I love, so this is definitely a race I am willing to go to! We made this into a long day, with the city rodeo after, so much fun!

This display of flags was really neat to see. I love seeing our flag, it's so amazing and has so much meaning. I just worked with the scouts on the Citizen pin, obviously it had a lot to do with the flag and I loved that, then seeing all these flags and it being Memorial Day...just amazing!

Doesn't that look fun? It's insane to see the riders going soooo fast and so low! This is right after that last turn, it's so neat to see them leaning over, then straight up, hunched down, and ready for the next turn. It definitely takes some skill!

"Why hello there!!" This race had ended, so the riders were on their way back and getting ready for the next race.

I think this guy was the winner...wooo...look at that burnout baby!

Hello again, my friend!

Aww...lovely sunglasses...bug eyes! I don't think I'll ever find a pair of glasses I like. I bought these there for $10, as I was paying the guy, Babe spun the display rack, wheel of fortune style. Glasses went flying! I told Babe, "Nice, we just bought 6 more pairs!" Luckily the nice people there said, "No problem, that's kids for ya!" I was so embarrassed!!

I LOVE this pic, totally professional quality, AND I took it!! Go me!

We're nearing the end of the day...can you tell? There was a kid, maybe 16-18 years old that kept looking over at us. I know he was thinking, "Oh my gosh! Look at those people, just letting their kids run wild!" (Actually this was the worst they did, besides the sunglasses episode!) The dude obviously doesn't remember his childhood and has no kids of his own...just wait, dude, just wait!

Definitely done with racing now! We haven't had a stroller for Jenson until a few weeks ago, I bought it so I could run...yeah, that's happened...ONCE! I want to be a runner, I really do, I just need to not make excuses! I'm so glad we brought the stroller, it made it sooo much easier. We bribed (paid) Lance to push the stroller all day. He did great, it's amazing how a few dollars can motivate kids!

Mmm...Delicious sno cones on a hot day. The only thing that could be better is if they didn't cost FIVE dollars EACH!!! Holy crap! Unfortunately the lady had already put the syrup on them, I didn't ask the price and then she said, "$10!" Uhh...what? I only wanted TWO! Oh well, we know now! ************** Next we were off to the city rodeo! YEEEEHAW!!! I love rodeos! (I'm not redneck at all!) We were going to meet some friends there, but of course we were running late. We decided to just meet at the gate and go from there. When we got there I saw a sign that said, "contestant and ADA parking." Woohoo...today we are going to be ADA! (We don't have the sign...baby steps, baby steps.) Anyway, we were able to park right next to the entrance and we ended up not paying the parking fee...yeah! But pushing a wheelchair through rocks, is an awesome workout! I don't know why Jillian Michaels or others don't get people in wheelchairs to volunteer and have biggest loser contestants drag them through huge gravel pieces! That would be funny to see! You can't push forward, you have to go backwards! Get him!

YEEHAW!! I think this was the first year our city had a rodeo, it was pretty fun!

I do have a small complaint though, Handicap/wheelchair seating, isn't fair! It isn't just the rodeo, but the rodeo had an awesome chick right next to us letting me know the rules. So we pay for our 3 tickets for the kids and 2 adult tickets, we're a family, go out for fun, right? So what if we happen to have a wheelchair, we'll be just like all the other families, right? Not the case. Apparently, you can only have one person sit next to the wheelchair person, everybody else needs to sit someplace else. Umm...we came to this event TOGETHER, we'd like to sit TOGETHER! Is that too much to ask?

I told Adam I wanted to sit by him, and we'd just send our 7, 5, and 1 year old to sit someplace else...sorry to who they choose to sit by!! Obviously we didn't do that, but could you imagine!? What if it was just Adam that went and he had the 3 or ever more kids with him, they couldn't sit by him? I understand that they only have a few spots for wheelchairs, but if there are no other wheelchairs, the girl STANDING next to us didn't need to tell me that we can only have one other person/chair sit next to him. We followed that dumb little rule. Two kids on my lap, one on Adam's, that's only two seats used, HA! It was awesome that the girl gave us dirty looks the rest of the night...whatever. Hope she's never in this situation.

Either way, it was an awesome day! The kids were pretty good the whole time, which made Adam and I happy, which makes the whole day great!

Spook the Snake

2010-06-08T01:00:00.000-06:00

The kids have been talking about getting a snake. When Adam was a kid he was always playing with snakes, lizards, etc. There's even a picture of him putting a lizard down the diaper of one of his brothers! I now know where my kids get it! Because of this Adam gave in and we set out on Saturday to get a snake...ewww!!! I really didn't like the idea, but since I have all boys, my vote usually doesn't count. And I'd do it for them anyway. We ended up getting a ball python, she'll get between 45 and 60" long! That's crazy! Here she is! We call her Spook because of her markings, they look like little ghosts, a few look like aliens. She's actually kinda cool, and I really don't care about snakes. I will look at them, but to actually have one as a pet? Yeah right! But here we are...

I love this pic. The holes above her mouth are heat sensors. I've even held her a couple of times, until she turns her head toward my body. I can't take that, I always think she's going in for the kill, she isn't poisonous or anything, but yeah.

On Sunday we had a nice little scare, in our office we have two 4 drawer dressers, Babe decided he wanted to count the drawers. So he pulled them all out, right as he was pulling out the last two, at the same time, I turned around to say, "Don't, it will tip!" I don't even remember what I said, but everything starting moving in slow motion. Babe was becoming trapped under the dresser, the snake cage (which is glass) was about to come crashing down, and a glass rock that we have was about to land on Babe's head! I know a few bad words were thrown in there...oops! But I was able to jump over Adam in the wheelchair, well, go around him, and hold the dressers at a 45 degree angle so Babe could get out. At the same time I grabbed the glass rock, and the cage. I don't know how it all worked out the way it did, but I'm so thankful that we had the blessing of safety for those few minutes. One of the first things that ran through my head was, "oh no, we're going to have a snake slithering through the house!" All of this of course had to happen 20 minutes before church!

Note to self: anchor dressers to the wall!!

Working with Daddy!

2010-06-07T14:10:00.002-06:00

A week or two ago Adam decided he wanted to help Daddy in the shop. When he came in, I knew he'd be dirty. Working with carbon is definitely dirty...

...I for sure didn't think he'd be this dirty though! WOW!!

5 years old!

2010-05-30T20:20:00.010-06:00

On the 28th Babe turned the big F-I-V-E!! Our friend Ali made the cake, she did an incredible job!

I just love this picture! Grandma and Grandpa brought Babe over a card with money in it!! He loved that, he wants to buy a big transformer with his money! Unfortunately he started to not feel well around lunch time. Since the other kids were sick earlier in the week, and we had a day in between everybody being healthy, I didn't think he'd get sick.

A funny story: Grandma and Grandpa were trying to tell Babe to go lay on the couch, just for a minute or two. Of course he didn't want to, he was on the verge of tears and definitely needed some rest! I was able to convince him to sit on my lap and put his head down, literally within about 20 seconds he was out...poor little guy!

Have two big presents wrapped, and sitting on the counter for a couple of days is too much for a 5 year old! He got caught ripping the corner, but he said, "Oohh, it's baseball! I LOVE baseball!"

Finally he gets to open it! YAY! A batting tee and some bases!

A while later, the other Grandma came over. He obviously wasn't feeling too well...

...he was feeling so yucky that he let Lance open his gift from Grandma!

Hooray! A batting helmet!

Such a cutie! He was laughing at Jenson trying on his helmet, backwards.

After a bath, a warm fuzzy towel, and a cozy robe it was time to blow out the candles! (we missed a candle...oh well!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!!

Last day of school!

2010-05-30T20:00:00.005-06:00

Lance had an awesome First Grade school year! He, along with I, were sooo ready for the year to be OVER!! YAY! At the end of Kindergarten he cried and cried, he did not want school to be over! This picture was from the first day of school...notice the nice clothes, shoes, and a great smile!? He was excited to be going back to school!

Last Day of School! I am surprised there are no holes in his pants! Can you see how much he's grown?? My heavens! He hates pictures and just wanted to ride his bike to school and be done with the 1 1/2 hours left. What's the point of 1 1/2 hours? Oh well...

Lance got all 4's, which are basically all A's! I'm soo proud of him. He was right at the reading level he should be at, when he started first grade and when he finished, he is now on a 2nd-3rd grade reading level! Everything just clicked for him, I hope he keeps it up! Lance is an awesome friend to everyone in his class, he likes a girl, but of course nothing I say will make him say which girl it is! :) Most of his friends will be staying at the school while Lance and our neighborhood move onto the new school next year.

Wow, next year (a few months) I will have TWO in school...and driving to the school 3 times a day. At least in the warmer months I'll be able to ride my bike to the school, that should get my exercise in!

I know I'm supposed to be doing this!

2010-05-25T20:42:00.005-06:00

Today has been one of those days...again. Lance woke up around 6 and said in a frantic voice, "Mom, I need that stuff!" He was talking about Motrin, he was burning up. An hour later he was getting ready for school, I told him he for sure wasn't going to school today. He almost cried, because I told he can't miss any days of the last week of school. I forgot to mention, "If you're burning up, that's fine." By 11 am or so he was snuggled in my bed half asleep and burning up again. I tried to get him to take some more Motrin, but he didn't want to. He was still trying to tease me, so that was a good sign. He's such a little prankster! He finally took it and slept from about noon until about 8 pm! He's so worried about not getting his black binder at school and keeps asking me to go get it. I'm kind of thinking that Monday, (secretly hoping), was our last day! I might just have to re-enact some "last day of school pictures." Jenson also has something going on, he was so cranky, not napping well, etc. Between scouts and t-ball right after I knew McDonald's was on the menu tonight! I rocked and walked Jenson in his stroller for 2 1/2 hours. I took him out to see if holding him would be better, and nothing. I was about to cry and getting frustrated so I put him back in the stroller, in literally about 3 minutes he was out! HALLELUJAH! I cried a few happy tears. Finally a break, I could now get myself together and take Babe to t-ball. But...taking Jenson would need to be done, so after about 10 minutes I had to wake him up. Sad. Now, having McDonald's for dinner wouldn't be that bad, but I've been Living the Life! I was determined to "cheat" and just give up for the day. I deserved it right? I mean, I had a crazy, stressful day, why not reward myself by having doing a little emotional eating!? But is it really rewarding myself? I thought so! Adam on the other hand...When I came home he said, "I was worried for a minute. I thought you got yourself McDonald's." I told him I did. He gave me a good little pep talk, you could taste the disappointment I had. But I didn't go through with it, I bought a 1/4 pounder MEAL and I was going to snarf it down. Thanks to Adam I didn't go off the plan, at least not too much. I did have some fries on the way home. It was really interesting, I received an email from Live the Life about emotional eating today...How'd they know I'd need that TODAY? They also made a good blog post about cheating. Again, how'd they know? Thanks to the email, the blog post, and my wonderful husband, I bought the cheeseburger, but didn't eat it! I will be successful! It might sound weird, but since all these things fell into place like they did, I know I am supposed to be doing this.

Another bad day..

2010-05-17T23:17:00.002-06:00

My sweet, sweet little guy had such a long horrible day. I started crying right along with him. I wanted to just scoop him up and snuggle in my fluffy bed and just be done! Completely done with the day! I was on the phone while we were outside, I turned around just in time to see Jenson's nose smash into the ground. He fell off the insane steps in the backyard. I said, "shoot!" then there were screams. When he lifted his head I just saw a dusty face with blood. I thought, "Oh no, he broke his nose!" I ran him inside and saw that it was "just" a scrape under his nostril. Then I noticed the big bump in the middle of his forehead. After a few more loves he was good to go. After a nap and some lunch we were outside again and BAM!! He fell off the killer stairs again, this time landing on his head on the window well grate. The bump/bloody mark on his left side is the result of that. A few more loves and he was good to go again. Whew...I was glad that'd be the last thing for the day! I borrowed a wheelbarrow from a neighbor, when I went outside the gate to grab it, I said, "stay there Jenson, I'm just right here..." I seriously went 4 feet away from the gate, turned around and heard more screaming! The gate, which has a gap, just big enough for his legs to fit under, slammed into his legs because of a freak gust of wind. More screaming. More tears, this time from me along with Jenson. More loves, then he's fine again. THEN...I was shoveling dirt into the wheelbarrow, had a nice little groove going on, the kids were playing with Jenson on the OPPOSITE side of the yard. All of a sudden I swing the shovel around and...SMACK!! I smacked the cute little guy right under his left eye with the handle to the shovel. More tears again from us both. More loves. We decided to go in and snuggle, he let me snuggle him for a whole 30 minutes!! Of course Babe threw dirt at him and there were the usual 500 other times of an almost 18 month olds day to day cries on top of all the usual stuff. I was sooo happy for dinner, then bath, then bed and we'd call it a day!

After a bath he looks like a different kid! At least the little guy seems to be really happy, maybe it was all the water he knew I'd let him splash onto the floor. Here's to a better tomorrow!!

First T-Ball Game

2010-05-12T21:16:00.013-06:00

Last Saturday Babe had his first T-ball game, he loved and hated it. His first game got cancelled, thankfully, that was the day I had my 5k, I didn't see how we could be in two places so I was so happy it got cancelled!

Babe up to bat. I love how the helmet is covering his face. It made for some good comedy!

SWING!! Yay! He made it to first base!

Running to second!

Now for the outfield...he did not like that one bit. He lifted up the bases, looked around, sat down...

...moved off the field to sit some more...

...inspected blades of grass...

...coach caught onto him and was able to talk him into coming back onto the field to play.

Then he decided he was done, not a happy camper.

Oh, but wait! One more inning, meaning he gets to bat again! Here he is making it home! HOORAY!!

Then he got bored again...think he has ADD/ADHD??? LOL

After game treat with Grandma! Totally worth it, right? I certainly hope so, or it'll be a long season!

5k

2010-05-02T17:16:00.002-06:00

May 1st I ran my first 5k and I loved it! I have always wanted to run, but never thought I actually would. Finally doing this has sparked my interest in running more and I love it. I am pretty sure that I got the "runner's high" every other runner has talked about. There's another one at the end of the month that I would love to do also! I did a few things wrong, first I got some shoes on Tuesday, the guy said as long as I do a couple of runs in the shoes I'd be fine. Well, of course, life happened, I was lazy, kids were hungry, school things were happening and sleep, I need sleep! So, I didn't get at least one run in on these shoes. So I come up with the brilliant idea to "break in" my shoes while I do a couple of errands, which means mostly driving. Adam thought that was a bad idea, then he added, "but, who would take running advice from someone in a wheelchair?" I had to laugh, even though he's right, I said something about, "yeah, that's right! It'll be fine!" Luckily for me, the shoes were AWESOME, no problems at all, which I'm very, very thankful for. The other thing I did wrong was not running, no exercise at all in the past month or so. Going by that and my time and the fact that I did it should mean I'm in the top 3 next time, right? Yeah I don't think so, maybe one day, but not now. I have a lot of work to do and like I said, I love running, and that's what matters. At the beginning of the race I see all these people jumping up and down, stretching, and just overall warming up. Since I'm such a newb I didn't do much, I pretended to stretch...I'm so self conscious of myself, I need to not care...as much. I felt just as big of a nerd just standing there, so I pretended I was just really cold, rubbed my hands and such. Mostly I was just nervous. I'd never done this before, I had no idea what to expect. I looked around and saw really good runners, middle people and people like me, there just because. The canon finally went off and people started running, it was like a traffic jam though, I hear the cannon and nothing moves for about 30 seconds. Finally I get to run, now that I'm running all nervousness has gone away. The weather was overcast, a few raindrops fell before the race, but surely it wouldn't do anymore, right? A few minutes into the race it started raining, then harder, then that turned to hail, it did feel good on the lips though! Running with other people, some ahead, some behind was great! There was a 10 year old girl and her Mom there, the 10 year old girl was some good competition for me. She did awesome!! I only walked a little bit of the whole thing, each time I did walk the Mother-daughter team would pass me, I'd let them get ahead a little bit, but enough I could keep them in my sights. It was so nice to pace myself against someone that I knew had tons of energy and would be a great pace setter. I didn't pay attention to the course because I didn't really know the names of the roads, I just knew there would be signs and I could follow everyone else. We went up one road and turned right, I thought for sure we'd turn left, time to start heading back, ya know! I also wanted to ask someone next to me where we were on the course, am I close or so far away or what? Finally I heard someone say something about it not being too much further, I looked up and recognized one of the big buildings and I LOVED that. I knew I'd be able to do it all. Yes, I'm saying that about a measly 3.1 miles! There was a lady handing out little tiny cups of water...she had one water bottle, I'm pretty sure she wasn't part of the race personnel. Haha, she meant well though. Once I recognized the big building I was so excited to cross that line, see my time, and know that I accomplished this! I ran 3.1 miles on the treadmill and my time was 49 minutes, somewhere around there. I was just hoping to get at least 45 minutes or something. When I looked up and saw my time, I started crying, I know, I know, I'm such a sap. Then I thought, "duh, I can't cry and let everyone see me crying!" Then I finally crossed that line and looked at Adam, not sure what my face looked like, but I think it spelled "RELIEF" all over it. I almost puked, I had to hurry and put my hand up to my mouth and luckily only gagged. Just after I did the whole, "blech" sound somebody says, "let me take your chip." I thought, "oh crap somebody saw me!" I am sooo happy I finally did this, it is such an awesome experience, I seriously am very excited for the next one!

My shirt and number...woohoo!!

YAY!! I'm crossing the finish line! (I'm the one in the white)

My time was 38:53.6 = 12:33/mile...not too bad!

Spaghetti!!!

2010-04-24T22:37:00.004-06:00

Jenson definitely loves to eat some spaghetti!! He also loves rubbing it all over himself, clapping his hands and touching his hair.

Awesome red eye! Like I've said before I'm don't have the patience to edit photos...that's what Adam is for! I'm was told not to mention how we got him to smile and laugh so much...Daddy would chew up some ice then shoot them out of his mouth to Jenson. Jenson loves this little game. Me? Not so much, although it is entertaining!

Okay, I'm ready for a bath, bottle, then bed!

T-Ball!!

2010-04-21T15:31:00.007-06:00

Babe is going to play t-ball this year, he seems pretty excited! Before practice, him and I were playing catch and he got discouraged after dropping the ball a few times. Every hour from noon until it was time to go, he would whine, "how much longer?"

Babe playing 3rd base.

Babe chatting it up with his new buddy!

Jenson, "ooohh...a ball! I want the ball. ball. ball. ball. ball."

"Batter up!!" I always get the kids backside, instead of front. I'll remember this for his first game!

Run! Run! Run!

After practice, he found some dirt, so of course he had to go run through it!

I love this picture. True boy!

After Babe hit the ball, instead of running to 1st base he ran after the ball and picked it up. After he heard us yelling, "RUN TO FIRST!" He understood, until it was time to run to second! It's so fun to watch all the little kids play, they always end up running the wrong way, or they'll carry the ball over and place it in the mitt of a teammate. Sooo fun!!

Now to sign Lance up for football...which, by the way, seems VERY political!! So...we might not be doing it. I haven't told him yet though...

Jenson's Bad Day

2010-04-16T16:33:00.006-06:00

Jenson had a bad day yesterday! It was the first full day of some antibiotics for a "yeast infection/bacterial/whatever-the-doctor-wants-to-call it-infection." I'm assuming the side effects, upset tummy and headache were getting to him. He's usually a very happy guy. Just let him have his monkey, a hug ever so often, and a snack or two, and he's the most happy little guy! I just love it! Yesterday though, he was cranky until I let him go play outside, then he was all smiles and giggles...until he bumped his head. Poor little guy. He cried for 20 minutes, even with his little monkey, snacks, and hugs. I was starting to get a little worried. Then we went back outside and it was smooth sailing from then on! Then it was time to come in for the night! Uh oh....the crying started...

...and kept going...

...and going some more...

...until finally he got a bottle and went to bed! This kid is gonna LOVE Summer! I just hope we don't have any eczema issues and that a sunscreen will work for him. I'm used to kids that end up looking like the Coppertone kid at the end of Summer.