The Things We Do For Those We Love

A couple of years ago I made a gingerbread airplane for my husband's work. This year I wanted to do something similar, but wanted it a little different. I love a challenge! So my neighbor and I came up with a way to do an airplane cake. I even place it in front of a sheet cake that was set up to be the runway. I found battery operated lights to place on the border of the runway, and they even blinked! It was a ton of work and my fingers were black, blue, red, orange for day afterward. But it was so exciting to see it done. Then I had to transport to his work with 3 kids in tow! That was a challenge, it is about a 45 min drive and on a tollway. I have never been so tense. They all loved it and Gabriel was very happy with the outcome. We do crazy things for the ones we love!

This is unfinished, but I was afraid something would happen before it was done and I wanted proof that I had gotten this far!

My kids love getting in any picture and they loved helping me take it to dad's work. Can you see the lights lining the runway?

Little blury, but the only close up I have of the finished product. No, I did not free hand the tail words, it is stenciled. I only wish I was that good.

Zach's baptism

I can't believe that I have a child old enough to get baptized, but it is true. Zach was baptized on Dec. 6th. We were very blessed to have Gabriel's parents and his grandmother from Virginia and my parents from Idaho come for his baptism. It was such a wonderful weekend. And we really enjoyed having so much of our family present. Zach had a really special day!

Disney pics

Well, I finally got pictures up. We broke down and got a new camera. My other one was pretty shot, but now it is a new toy for my kids. But it sure beats buying one of those digital ones they make just for kids!!!



At the beginning of December we took a very short trip to see my father-in-law at Disney. It was amazing to see all of the lights at Christmas time, it was simply beautiful. They actually even had fake snow fall one of the nights we were there, it was absolutely magical. The kids had a great time and Natalie loved seeing the characters, the boys just wanted the rides. I think their favorites were going to an Indiana Jones show and a Star Wars ride!! All in all we were very blessed to be able to go and we had a wonderful time.

Kid Photos

A friend of mine is so talented and offered to take pictures of my kids. My kids only lasted a few minutes before they were done with the photo shoot. She had to really work to get them all looking at the camera and giving a somewhat smile. Here are a few of the shots that she took. They are getting so big and changing so fast.

Ban on Bread

Many of you know that my son, Evan, will not touch bread for anything. So, you can imagine that he is a partial partaker of the sacrament at church. We have tried for years to get him to eat just 1 piece of bread, he won't do it. When the bread is passed to him, he just hangs his head down and doesn't look at the person until it passes by him. Those who have seen this just crack up, it is hilarious. So, this last Sunday when the bread came to him I whispered, "just take a little piece." He just shook his head and buried it behind me. After the bread was gone I asked him, "what are we going to do after you are baptized?"
"What do you mean?" he replied
I explained to him why we take the bread and water. And asked him how he was going to renew his covenants with Heavenly Father if he wasn't going to eat the bread. He thought for a minute and then nonchalantly said, "I won't get baptized." (Shoot the whole thing backfired!) So, I asked "Aren't we suppose to get baptized to go back to live with Heavenly Father?" He wrinkled his forhead and really was perplexed. He didn't say anything else. Then later that day he came and told me that Heavenly Father knows that Evan doesn't like bread and says that it is okay. How do you argue with that? I guess we better start looking into taking a cracker to church every Sunday so our son can take the whole sacrament!

Help, I'm crazy!

I have been back from Germany for a little while, but still can't figure out putting my pictures on. So, if any of you are experts on the subject call me!!! I have some great pics of Germany I would love to put up.
The other day I was thinking about my life and how crazy hectic it is right now. I really need to put things in perspective.
This is my current responsibilities, in no particular order:
1-I am a stay home mom with 2 kids in school and a 2 year old at home and with that comes all of the household chores.
2-part-time job from home for a landscaping company answering phones and doing paper work (only for abt 2 more weeks)
3-teaching preschool out of my home 3 days a week for 3 hours
4-PTA home room mom for sons school class
5-counselor in Primary presidency
6-Soccer and baseball mom(but only for 2 more weeks!)

Can anyone say CRAZY!!!? Ya, I'm a little in over my head, just a little. Why do we get so caught up in life doing too many things that most of the time aren't going to matter in 10 years? It is so easy for me to forget what is really important, my family. They are my greatest joy. I love being able to spend time with them and just relax. My kids are growing up so fast and I want to soak in every moment I have with them. Hope your week isn't as crazy as mine is going to be. But if it is savor the moments with your family all the more. And call me if you can help getting my pics up!!

I'm Here!!

I am in Germany! And it is so beautiful here. And colder than Texas. My sister had told me to bring a jacket. So, I brought a fairly warm jacket for where I live, but not warm enough for over here. I have had to use one of theirs most mornings. I am having a great time spending time with my sister. She has 4 kids, 2 of them are in school. She has a very busy life and I only wish that I could live closer or do something else to help her. Her husband is deployed for a while and it is tough. I only hope that my visit is enough to give her energy to last a little longer, until my other sister comes in December. I am taking lots of pics and will post them when I get back. Sorry I haven't posted any pics I still haven't got my photo program back up. But I will do some soon.

I SURVIVED!!!

This is going on a shirt that I will wear proudly to Natalie's graduation in 16 short years.
After always having someone to play with it was a real shocker to her to entertain herself. She talked all day long and fussed over every little thing. It was just so boring for her. I tried to have her help with my to do list. But that only lasts so long. But we did survive the first week back and this is what we got done.
1-I gutted the boys bedroom.
You, unless you have kids, cannot imagine how stuffed a closet and under the beds can get.
Or how many legos can be in little cracks and corners.
It looked so nice when it was done and I even had an inspiration as to what to do with all of those priceless lego sets.
2-I sorted through all of Natalie's clothes and brought out the warmer clothing, so that we are ready for the cooler weather(I am hoping this will speed it along)
I can't believe how much clothing the girl has!!! And how fast she grows. There are some articles that she never wore. But at least it will stay in the family, I am taking the smaller ones with me to Germany to her cousin.
3-I started to orgainze the play room. This is going to be more work than I thought. And it doesn't help that our printer is broke, so I can't print out the labels that I want.

I did spend some time with Natalie. The first day of school we went to a neighbors house for lunch, the next few days we went swimming, to the park or played outside on the tramp(she likes not having the boys to contend with there!).
Now that a new week is here, and sports have started it is a different world some days. Last night Evan had soccer practice and Zach had his first baseball practice, both at 6:00. Gabriel doesn't get home from work until 7! Are you laughing yet? I was! Luckily, they are only about 2 miles from each other and I fortunately had a friend that was so nice to stay with Evan for his, so that I could attend Zach's first one. I have never done baseball and was shocked to see that he has 2-3 practices a week. Is this normal? I may be a staunch, but I told Gabe that there might be some that he will just have to miss. One of his practices is at 7:30 at night,for 90 min. and their bedtime is 8! Don't get me wrong, I budge on bedtimes, but not that much on a school night. Maybe I am a little harsh, but my kids NEED their rest. But we survived last night and this Sat is Evan's first game and Zach has another practice at the same time, but thank goodness my husband will be there for that one!
I will survive and I hope my kids do too!! Only 2 more weeks and I will be in Germany!!! And oh my, their grandmothers are going to have to survive this!

Butterflies the first day of school

Not, my boys, but me!!!
I was more nervous for the boys to go to school than the boys were. Evan never even looked back. In fact, the first morning I wanted to drive them. Yes, I know I am a little attached to my children, but these are my little kids growing up before my eyes and there is nothing I can do but grab every moment possible. So, I had told them, against my husbands approval, that I would drive them in the morning and they could ride the bus home. Evan was so disappointed, it was the sadest face(I wish you could have seen it).
"But, mom, I wanted to ride the bus"
"Well, you will ride the bus home after school"
"But I have waited my whole life to ride the bus to school and now it is ruined!"
Wow, what a melodrama!
So, he proceeded to beg his older brother to convince mom to let them ride the bus. Yep, they won. He was so excited to get on the bus, he is so big now. And Zach was one of the proudest big brother, it melted my heart. Oh, how I miss them when they are gone. They are great boys and super good friends. I am a very blessed mother.

More of the Beach

I just wanted to show you some more of the beach.
Zach really loved the water and the waves. Some of them were pretty strong and could knock him down. Gabe and I even went wave jumping and had a blast. I would have loved to go swimming with just Gabriel and I. Next time we'll go without the kids(probably when we are 50!)

This is one of my favorites. One wonderful man and one cute little guy. Evan is so much like his dad. And as you can tell, very rarely can we get him to just sit and relax. He is alway going!
A few family shots. The beach is not the place to do a family portrait, all in swimsuits. But we thought this one was funny because we were trying to get one with the water around us, but the waves kept coming strong. So, we are trying hold up the boys. It was hilarious! The three kids is a cute one, it turned out blurry. This was after we got back from picking berries. Do you notice Evan's basket of berries next to him? Ya, he was not letting that out of his sight!!

Virginia Trip

After leaving Idaho on Sunday we made a pit stop for a few days in Utah to visit friends and then it was onto Virginia, the 2nd part of our summer vacation. We flew into Baltimore and a very nice friend let us borrow her car to drive down to Richmond, where Gabriel's parents live. We got to their house at about 1 a.m. (don't think we'll do that again!!) The next day we drove to Virginia Beach and spent the night there. The kids had an absolute blast playing at the beach. Sand and water what more do you need if you are a kid? The boys actually played in the water. Last time we went to the beach they were scared stiff of the waves(but that was 3 years ago). Zach even had a wave board that he tried to learn how to use. Natalie pretty much stayed with the sand, we got her out in the water a few times, but she wouldn't stay there very long.

This was a shot that I had thought about before we got to the beach. But it didn't work out like I had hoped and Natalie's print had a few flaws!!! Maybe next time we are there. But it is still cute to see her little foot next to mine. If only we could mold things like this.


The The boys thought it was so fun to run from the waves, and I like how the sun is glistening on the water. This was the next morning. We wanted to get in more beach time before we had to leave.

Natalie had her tongue out alot at the beach, maybe it was the taste of salt in the air. She would walk out to the water, but stayed a ways away from the actual water.
Zach loved this!! Gabe would help him "jump" the waves!
Evan played in the sand alot. He is our sand boy. He was so excited about this creation, as he called it. And then about 2 minutes after I took the picture a wave came up and washed it away. He started to cry and stated that now his love for mom had disappeared! I reassured him that I knew he loved me and showed him the picture that we would be able to alway remember what he made. It was so cute!

We headed back to my in-laws house, they live about 2 hours from the beach. We relaxed alot there. The boys enjoyed watching the Disney channel, we do not have cable and our rabbit ears pick up about 3 local channels. So Gabe and the boys were in heaven with his parents HDTV.
On Saturday we went and picked Blackberries with my in-laws and once again Evan was amazing at picking. He filled his little basket, but did not want it mixed in with everyone else's(something he learned when we went in Texas). He held on tight to his basket and kept telling everyone that they were his and he was going to eat them himself. We made a blackberry cobler the next day and it was delicious!
This was Great Grammy's Birthday celebration. On the couch is Gabe's uncle David, his Grammy, Natalie, his mom.
On the floor are his cousins, Craig and Chad, then Gabe with Evan and Zach(our boys)
We had a great time visiting his family. We were glad to get home also. Vacations are fun, especially when you are bonding with family. But it is nice to get back and into your own swing of things. Three days after we got home we took away Natalie's pacifier, something Gabriel had been threatening for months. It was a tough road. And she still wines so much I just want to stick a plug in her mouth, but not enough to go out and buy more. It has been almost a month now that we took it away and hopefully she gets better, at least she isn't asking for it anymore. Now we have to start thinking about moving her into a bed! Ahhh! They grow up too fast. Thank goodness for pictures to remember the memories. Hope you all had a great summer!!!

Grandparents

We saw a lot of Grandparents during our vacation this summer. One of them had never seen Natalie before!

This is my dad with Natalie at Yellowstone. She loves her Grandpa. After we got back to Texas she asked almost every day where Grandpa was. We have called him a few times since then.


This is my Grandpa Myler, my mother's step dad. They live in Idaho Falls. We had a great time visiting with them and letting the kids get to know them better. There are some pics with my other grandparents (my mother's dad and step mom). But those are other pics that I will have to get and post those later.

This is my dad's father. He lives in Aberdeen, Idaho. Where is that you ask? It is a little town about 30 miles west of Blackfoot. My dad grew up on a farm, so the boys had a blast there. Just being boys! Evan was climbing trees and playing with the animals.

This is the grandparent that had never seen Natalie before. This is Gabriel's grandma Barber. She lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Idaho Trip

While in Idaho my parents took us to Yellowstone Park. The boys really liked Old Faithful. When it was done they asked if it would do it again, they wanted to see more. We saw some beautiful sights, those pictures are on my mother's camer(hers took better pics). So when I get them I will post them.

My brother, Wesley, was a trooper. I think he carried one of my kids the entire time we were at Yellowstone. He and Gabriel each carried 1 up a mountain! And at one point he actually carried 2 of them!! We had a great time with him and were glad that he came along.

We went to a spot where you can feed some fish. My dad had brought some bread to give the fish. Natalie thought it would be better to eat it herself! She will eat almost anything!


The next day we went on a float trip in Jackson. Nat looked so darn cute in this huge life jacket. There are more pics of us on the water, but those are on my moms camera as well. We did a trip that didn't have white water, that way the kids could be with us. The water was so high they wouldn't allow little kids on the other trip, maybe next year. But our guide was very nice and took us on a part that had just a little rapid, but enough that we got wet. All the kids wanted to go back and do it again. It was great!

Then we went to the temple and watched the Joseph Smith movie at the visitor's center. It was great! This is after when we were getting in the car. Gabriel was just standing there and then Zach walked over next to him. Zach is our sensitive to spiritual things kid. It melted my heart to see them share this moment. This is where we were married 9 1/2 years ago! My how time flys.

The beginning of our summer vacation

Grandma met us at the airport in Salt Lake with a sign that my son had requested her to make. (Just another thing for her to remember to bring with her!)
Then she took us the long awaited dinosaur museum that Evan has wanted to see for a few years. We lived less than 1/2 hr from it and never went there. Now that we live a couple hundrend miles away we decided it was time to take our dinosaur obsessed son. Cousins met us there for a very enjoyable afternoon. All the kids had a blast with all the attractions. They even made their own fossil, for an extra charge of course!! Thanks Grandma!!
Zach and Evan with their cousin Joseph (my brother's son) unveiling what they found. They played here for a long while.
Natalie didn't quite grasp what she was suppose to do. She just liked playing in the sand that didn't stick to her.

Berry Patches

We went berry picking just before we left on vacation. They were big and juicy and the kids had fun picking and tasting. It was Natalie's first time picking and she loved it. I think she loved having a bucket to carry around. But once we saw a spider, she wouldn't pick anymore. They have some very interesting looking spiders here.


Evan was 2 when we first went picking. He ate more berries than were in his bucket, but he was the most dedicated picker of our bunch. He was the same this day. This was the first time we picked blackberries and he worked just as hard.




They were all great helpers and were definitely ready to go when Mom was finally done filling her bucket! Next on our list-peaches!

Watermelon skills

I bought a huge Watermelon at one of our Farmer's Market and the kids were so excited to eat it, except Zach (he doesn't like it). But I didn't think about the fact that we usually get a seedless one in the store, this one wasn't. So my 2 melon eaters were trying to figure out how mom was spitting out the seeds and keeping the melon in the mouth. Natalie was the funniest. She was trying so hard to eat just the melon and not the seeds. Then she attempted to spit them out with the melon in her mouth and it all seemed to fall out. She had it all running down her fat little belly (what a mess), but we had fun.
Yes, we were under a trampoline, in attempts to have some shade from the sun. I knew that it was going to be a mess and so I wanted to be outside. But man it gets hot out there!















Evan was getting really good at spitting seeds. (I think he liked the fact that mom was approving of the act) He was trying to see how far he could "shoot" them. And now he keeps checking to see if we have any watermelons growing in our back yard.

Happy Birthday Natalie

I'm back!!! I haven't fixed my computer, but I am at my moms house and hers is working well with my camera. I am going to try and catch up while I am here.



First, our little baby turned 2 on June 14th! Amazing, I can't even believe that she is not my baby anymore. She is getting so big. She is my most independent child ever. She has to do everything herself and if she doesn't watch out temper. Yes, she has a temper! She is our little other mother at the house. She will hover over the boys if they are crying and then if I am trying to get them to do something she is right there repeating everything I say to them. Her vocabulary is much bigger than the boys' were at this age. She loves to talk and have the attention on her. Her big thing right now is to convince everyone that she is funny and then laugh like she is the funniest! Last night we were driving back to my parents house after a long day at Yellowstone Park. It was about 9:30 and I thought for sure she would be asleep. I asked my husband, who was sitting next to her, if she was asleep and before he could respond I heard Natalie say, "still awake!" We all busted up, it was hilarious. And of course she laughed along with us. I love our little Natalie. She is so much fun to be with, even with her phases she is going through, she is a little sweetheart. I think it melts Gabriel's heart when he walks through the door, anytime, to hear "Daddy!" She will run to him and wrap her little arms around his legs. It makes My heart melt! HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIE!!!
After the birthday bash!












The frosting did a little tinting to Nat, she loved her cake

I'm not going to blink

I love the songs that have deep meaning, what can I say I am a hopeless romantic.
First, let me apologize about the lack of posts. I have some really cute pics that I want to put up, but something happened to our computer and now I can't download my photos. I am working on that problem and hopefully will have that resolved shortly.
But in the mean time I had to post tonight to record a tender moment that I don't want to forget. My younger son had a rough day making some not so good choices and was in time out twice today. This evening after bath time we had a disobedience issue and he lost a privilege. He was, to say the least, upset. (Add in a very tired little boy and you get lots of tears!) He begged and begged for the privilege back, and I almost caved. It was breaking my heart to see him so upset. I picked him up in my arms and walked him to his room where we read scriptures and had prayer. He cried some more when I asked Heavenly Father to help Evan's little heart be comforted. After I got the others in bed I came back and laid by him and his brother. (Ev didn't want to sleep in his bed, so the two boys were sharing a sleeping bag on the floor.) It was so sweet and wonderful to have both my boys there snuggled up to me. I love my little family. And though at times it is tough to be a parent, it is wonderful to comfort them and help them to see a bigger picture. I definitely did not "blink" as the country song would say.
I will post pics as soon as I can.

Cute bugs!

This is my cute little bug. My mom got her this outfit and it makes her look so grown up. When my husband saw her in this he couldn't believe how big it made her look. They grow up too fast.











These two were so excited to find a bug on our little tree. They were playing discovery and finding all sorts of things this day. But this was their greatest find! I love spring time when everything is new and exciting.

Sunday afternoons

This is our sunday afternoons after church. The other sunday I actually got a nap in and when I woke up my boys wanted to show me what they had created. I am not exactly sure what it was suppose to be, but let me say that for the next week I found tape and yarn everywhere in their playroom!! Creativity does have its price!









Yesterday after church Evan is suppose to be changing his clothes and he comes out and says to me, "Mom, look at my superman costume!" He was very proud of himself.











At night it is a treat to pop popcorn, since we just got a new air popper. And it is the only kitchen appliance that my daughter is not terrified over. Anything else that plugs in she is scared stiff and is frozen in place shaking hysterically! But this is a fun thing, if you can't tell from her face.









We love Sundays!!!