peterson pack

Naming a pet

2011-10-10T20:54:00.003-05:00

We don't have a pet. But my kids would love a pet. So anytime that they get any sort of animal they name it. Natalie will give it a name that is relative to what it is. She got a pillow pet that is a dinosaur (I think) and she didn't give it a dinosaur name or anything like that. She named it "Pillow". Why? "Because he is a pillow." Her rationale is very plain and sensible. Gabe took Evan on a day trip today and Ev was so nice to bring back a souvenir for his siblings. He brought Nat a little bobblehead horn frog. She wasn't sure what it was so before naming him she asked Ev what he was. After telling her, she announced that she was naming him "Horny". Gabe and I just looked at each other and tried really hard not to laugh. And then she told me that she wants to take him to school tomorrow and show him to her class. How do you get your daughter to change a pets name?

Our April

2011-05-06T16:33:00.004-05:00

Wow! April flew by and I got very little pictures from the month. Evan was looking through my camera and asked how come I didn't have any photos of him. I felt bad - they were all from preschool. I need to work on that.
Here are a few from April that I did get.We have spent the whole month, it feels like it, at the baseball fields. The boys are both in baseball and we are up there a lot. Natalie has been a true sport spending so much time up there. I love her hair here. It seems like it is always crazy. She calls it "crazy hair". The other day she told me that she was a boy. And she was dead serious. She said that only boys had crazy hair, so she must be a boy. (there is a little boy with super curly hair in preschool and that is where she was getting her research from) I know how you feel Natalie. It is a love/hate relationship. Better get use to it.

We let our pet fish and frog go free. Gabriel and I had been trying to convince our kids to let the critters go. The kids had lost interest in taking care of them and Mom was stuck with cleaning the tank and always taking care of them. They finally agreed. I think it will be a while before we get another pet in our home.

The biggest news of our month was the big storm that hit our neighborhood. There were winds up to 80 mph and it brought hail with it. It was about 1 am and amazingly our kids slept through the whole thing. The storm hit from the opposite side of the house from where their windows are. But Gabe and I could not sleep during the whole thing. It left its mark on our home and many more around us. Luckily we didn't have any windows break like many of our neighbors. We were very blessed. This is a lid that got left outside. All those holes are from hail. They had golf ball size hail reported. And it hailed so much when you looked out the window that night, it looked like snow had accumulated in parts of the lawn.

It also knocked down our fence on both sides of us. A LOT of fences are down here. The kids like it because now there are 4 yards connected and they have more playing field. It has been a little nice to have the kids all connected and together. And I have a feeling that it is going to be a while before our fence gets repaired. It also left a mark on our car, but I have no photos of that one. The insurance totaled the car, it would take quite a bit to fix it. There are blessings mixed in here, but mostly we are grateful our kids slept through it all and that no one got hurt.

Love What You Do In Life

2011-03-25T13:34:00.007-05:00

There are two things that I absolutely love doing. I could take a break from them, but after a while I would really miss them. I only wish that I had figured out how much I love doing these things years and years ago!

1-I love being a mom. I love doing mom things, not house things, mom things. I love helping out at my kids school. I love seeing them stand proud when their mom is helping out in their classroom. I love seeing them work hard at something and then watching their face when they have accomplished something big. I love watching them play together and work together with the family. I LOVE reading with them, not matter how big they get. I am a little biased, but they are my kids - I have super great kids. So, why wouldn't I love being a mom when I have kids like these!?!

2- I love teaching preschool! I recently started teaching preschool out of my home, this is my 2nd year. It is something that I have wanted to do for as long as I can remember. In fact I would go to garage sales or thrift stores looking for things that I could use in my preschool, when I was in high school. When I started, I did it more to help out a friend who needed an affordable place for her son and it gave Natalie something to do a couple days of the week. This year my class is double in size and it can get a little crazy at times. But today after they had all gone home I had the thought, "I love teaching preschool." I was so excited about teaching I wanted to call somebody and tell them all about it, but I didn't know who to call. It is so fun to see them get excited about little things that adults don't even blink at. They are all a joy to be around. Life is so exciting and simple in their world.

I hope that my children will be able to find what they love and go after that. It makes living life so much more fun when you are doing something that you have a passion for.

Spring Break!!!

2011-03-15T10:43:00.003-05:00

It is spring break here, so hopefully I can catch up on my blogs. But I had to post what we did yesterday! They aren't personal photos, I forgot my camera. I always seem to forget it when I really want to capture a moment. I need to work on that.

We took the kids to an indoor water park for their first day of spring break. The water was a little colder than we remembered it being. But it was still fun. They have a lazy river that isn't so lazy for adults! The water moves pretty quickly around, you really get a work out in there. And 2 of our kids LOVE it!

The highlight was this guy (who is scared of trying new things)

tried this and LOVED IT!!!

He probably jumped over a dozen times. He absolutely loved it and now he wants to go back to all the pools we have been to and jump off their diving boards. He even got dad to try it once. We all thought that was cool to watch. Dad hasn't been on a diving board since high school.

We had a great day and ALL of us were wiped out after we got home. What a fun day!

Tongues

2011-02-07T23:02:00.002-06:00

I have noticed the last couple of times that Natalie uses her tongue to color. She can always be found looking like this when she is coloring. It is adorable.

Last night you asked me to color with you. You found an activity book with a page for each number up to 19. You were bound to color each page before bedtime. I love your determination and desire to do a job good. You love to do school work and ask for homework when the boys are doing theirs. And you love to be busy. I hope you always aim high for yourself.

Winter Wonderland

2011-02-07T22:30:00.004-06:00

Many of you know I grew up in a state that gets very cold in the winter. I love the snow- for a time. Then I am ready for it to be gone. Well, moving here we thought we would never see snow. And for the last 4 years that we have lived here it has snowed every winter, and this winter it came twice (maybe three-my kids are hoping!) Last week our kids went to school on Mon and then Tuesday morning we woke up and everything was frozen. Our streets were complete sheets of ice. Needless to say school was CANCELED!!! I don't think I saw any disappointments on their faces. We did so many things last week and none of them involved errands, cleaning or schedules.

Our kids ice skated on the street. Evan declared himself pretty good after a couple minutes!

Zach opted for skating on the ice in a more compact mode. That really can't be too comfortable.

Then we ventured out back to use the hill, which was also frozen solid. No matter where we went it was slick. Our fence door was even froze shut. That is how it was for Tues, Wed and Thur. And each of those days we had no school. At this point Natalie was ready for some preschool. She wasn't as thrilled to have school canceled. We wanted friends to come over, but 2 problems: 1- the roads were very icy and still weren't cleared 2-all her friends happened to get sick the week we were out. Lucky for me none of my kids got sick.

Then we woke up Friday morning to this

Approximately 4 inches of snow. Which covered up all the ice and made the roads even more fun to venture on. But at this point I was going crazy and we were running out of the essentials. Two other girls and I (all needing groceries) braved the roads, going no faster than 30 and went to town. It was good to get out, but the roads are safer in states like Idaho with weather like this.

Friday we did some more fun outside. And Dad even got to join us. See how he is holding onto the fence? It was so slippery he couldn't stand up on the hill. But it made for some fun sled rides!!!

Even Dad thought so. Thank goodness for Little Tyke toys, since we don't have sled. I know once I invest in one it won't snow here.

We had a blast together all week. My kids were not ready to go back to school this morning. It was a fun break. I love spending time with my kids and hope that they will always remember our fun memories. Thanks for the memories Zach, Evan and Natalie.

Preschool Is The Best!!

2011-02-03T10:58:00.002-06:00

Natalie absolutely loves preschool. She asks me every day if there is preschool. I wish I had the courage to do it every day! She has started wanting to write other words besides her own name. This is what she drew for the family the other day. What a cutie!

She loves all the stuff we do in preschool. Monday we talked about Groundhog Day coming up. We made groundhog tunnels and we popped in and out to see if we saw our shadows. After school Natalie played in her groundhog tunnel for hours. She even wanted to sleep in it that night. She finally relented to taking a box in her room and she was going to sleep in that. After about 30 min she called me into her room to tell me she was too big of a groundhog and she slept in her bed. I love the imagination of a child. She told me the other day that she didn't want to go to kindergarten she wanted to stay in preschool forever. I am glad she loves it so much. But I do need to get her excited for kindergarten.

Mixed Emotions

2011-02-03T10:46:00.002-06:00

Seeing this in your driveway has such mixed emotions. How can looking at this truck make you happy and sad at the same time? My little family has moved many times and each time we were excited to begin a new adventure in a new land, yet so sad to leave family and friends behind. This particular truck brought many smiles for my family. My sister and her family moved to Texas!!! We are so excited to have family some what close. They are about 2 hours away. Close enough to spend holidays and see them fairly frequently. But I do know there were many tears shed as they left other family and friends to begin their new adventure here.

But my kids are so excited to have them closer!!! We helped them move in and then we went back 2 days later to help put stuff together and spend time together. I hope they enjoy living here as much as we have.

Natalie's First Play

2011-01-23T15:42:00.002-06:00

One of our local high schools are putting on a play, Beauty and the Beast. I wanted to take Natalie, but I wasn't sure how my kids would react. 1-Natalie is young and it is a 3 hour play; 2- I have two older boys ("a romantic play is not impressive" was their response); 3- Did I really want to spend money on something that could really blow up in my face?
We were very blessed and someone gave us free tickets to go. So, yesterday I took the kids and we went to our very first play. It was a little long for Natalie, but she loved it. Zach really enjoyed watching the orchestra play. Evan loved the part where Gaston tried to get the Beast. But Natalie's favorite part by far was meeting Belle and the Prince. All in all I am glad that I took the kids, it was a fun day.

Natalie thought it was so neat that one of her friends in preschool is the Prince's cousin! On the way home she asked me if the Prince ever visits Max's house. And if he does can she go over when he does?

Mom Time

2011-01-23T15:28:00.003-06:00

We have tried a few times over the last year or so to have a date with 1 kid every month. We don't do expensive things, sometimes it is just going to the park with them. But it is nice to be able to talk with just them and let them know that they are important to us as an individual. We haven't done it in a while and then when I tried starting it again there was a long pause between 2 of them. It was Zach's turn and he reminded me that it had been a really long time since he had one. He had a bad bad day at school this week, so I took him right away on a date. He wanted to go for ice cream and there happened to be a new one close by. We had a nice visit and he let me know that he didn't like calling these dates (he thought it sounded wierd to be on a date with your mom), so he has decided to call them "mom time". Not sure what they are called when dad comes along!? But it was interesting to see how he turned from being REALLY upset, but after our visit he felt better about the world and was happy again. I hate seeing my kids get hurt, but it is good to see them handle it in such a big way. I can't believe they grow up so fast.

Can you tell he loves chocolate? Oh, what a young stomach can handle.

Journaling

2011-01-23T14:40:00.003-06:00

I love reading blogs! If I were to admit to something that consumes my time it would be - I love to read other blogs. I love reading about the lives of some great women and wonderful mothers. Some of them will never know how much of an influence they are for me. Or how they, at times, have been my children's saving grace! I especially love and envy the ones that can post something every day or even weekly.

I love the idea of making these posts into a book to have to look back on years down the road. But right now if I did a book every year, one book would have like 5 pages! Journaling is hard for me, I don't make time for it. I kept a great journal on my mission. I wrote every day and I loved it. I love it now. I love going back and reading the entries and a lot of the stuff I forgot about it, the little things. And I know that is what is happening now with my little family. I am forgetting the little things and those are what I want to remember 10 years down the road.

I am making a goal to try and make more entries in this journal. I want to be able to have all the little things my kids say and do stored forever. I started this blog to keep our grandparents in the loop with us, but I don't think they read it anymore. (But then I hardly ever post) I hope that I can keep this goal and even include pictures every now and then. I have to remind myself that it may not be easy and I may have to adjust my priorities, but it will be worth it for my kids when they are older.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2011-01-09T21:20:00.003-06:00

Today was a wonderfully perfect day. We had heard there might be snow, but when we woke up this morning it was pouring rain. As we drove to church every other rain drop was so close to being snow, but it wasn't quite cold enough. Well after being there for 1 hour the snow was coming down thick. It was a beautiful sight. The kids were estatic and I don't know how their teachers kept them in class for the rest of church. Once we got home all they wanted to do was play in the snow. Natalie outlasted her brothers hands down. It is days like this that I am glad that half of our backyard is a slope. They had a blast sliding down and all the other fun you can have in the snow. Gabe built a fire and after playing in the snow we piled around the fire to warm up. What is it about a fire and snow outside that makes you feel so good and peaceful? The kids went out for a 2nd round after their stuff had dried, but I took a nap! What a fun day for all of us. Evan last night prayed for snow today- look what we got. So, tonight he prayed that the roads will be too icy and there won't be any school. I love it when school is canceled- I hope it happens too, Evan!

Making a snowman.

What fun! Watching his face made me want to jump on.

She didn't realize how cold she was until she came in the house, she was shivering.

She was very proud of her snowman, that she decorated all by herself. I love the arms. I had found something much smaller, but she was insistent on using those bats!

Catch up - Oct

2010-11-07T21:27:00.005-06:00

Now for an October update. As I was thinking about what we did during October and it seems like it was consumed by baseball. Last season when both boys played I told Gabriel I did not want to do that again. So, we let the boys know that there were other things that they could do. And we thought that Zach might actually do karate. Then when baseball rolled around this season they both absolutely without reservation wanted to play baseball. So, I bit the bullet and signed them both up. It has been great for Evan, he has really lucked out and had some great coaches each season. But poor Zach, I don't know if it is the age group he is in is more competitive, but he has not had some good coaches. He loves the sport and just enjoys playing.

This is Evan's team this season. Gabe was also one of his coaches, but he had to leave for work right after their last game and then they decided to do a team pic.

I thought this photo was funny. It was Evan's last game and I was watching him bat and he literally watched the ball go by him and he kept his eye on that ball after it passed him. It was hilarious to watch him do this a couple of times.

This is my preschool group. I arranged for us to go and sing some Halloween songs at a Senior Care Center. The kids were so excited to go and sing for somebody and the residents there absolutely loved it. They kept begging us to sing more! We will have to go back again. But it was cute to see them all singing and dressed up in their costumes.

Here they are singing There's A Spider On The Floor and they are pulling a spider up. What cute kiddos!!!

We did a little carnival thing with a couple other families in our area. One of the games there was bobbing for apples and I realized that none of my kids has ever bobbed for apples. Which having Evan is a shocker. Anyone who knows us knows how many apples we go through at our house. We really need to look at growing an orchard before he gets much older.

My little comedian! We were trying on pants and switching all the summer and winter clothes. Evan put these on and we all died laughing. And well, the picture says it all.

I am a slacker scrapbooker, my camera was lost so I have no photos of our Halloween. My FIL sent me some photos, so hopefully I can get them scanned in and I will post them. That is all for October. Hopefully Novembers will not be typed up in January- we'll see.

Playing catch up!!! - Sept.

2010-11-07T20:58:00.003-06:00

Once again I am way overdue for a post. I don't know if anyone still checks this blog anymore. I actually started this so that all of our grandparents and extended family could keep up with us, but I don't think any of them see this and I don't update it enough to keep them updated. Maybe if I did this as a journal of our family events I would be better at keeping it updated. I'll try that theory for a while and see where it gets me!
Life is busy as usual. Since I last posted we have stayed busy with baseball, preschool, church callings, hosting family and we've had 2 birthdays!!!

Evan turned 8 in Sept. and we had his baptism then. It was wonderful to be able to have both grandparents here, plus his cousin was able to come. Evan was elated. He is like his dad and doesn't really express his emotions outwardly, but as his mother there were signs that I could tell he felt special and he was happy that they could all come. He wanted a baseball cake for his birthday. And his dad had him convinced that mom could do a full stadium cake! Never mind the fact that I have never even set foot in 1 decorating class, Gabe!!! But sweet Evan settled for a simple field, "since you are so busy" he told me. What a sweetie.

As I was looking for a photo of his baptism to put up, I couldn't find one of the whole clan (grandparents and all). I don't know why we didn't take one. But here is one of the family.

And this is the cousin that was able to come. We can't wait to be able to see them more often, they are moving to Texas!!! It is like a dream that I am going to be able to live by one of my sisters! I am probably scaring my BIL with all my plans of when we can see each other!

Preschool has kept me super busy. At the end of school in May I had 5 kids in preschool, this year I started with 8! And I might add another in January. It has been crazy at times, but so much fun. Natalie loves having preschool and having so many kids to be able to play with.
This is not all of them, 2 were missing here. We took a field trip to a pumpkin patch and had a great time. It was so nice that most of the moms came. It made for keeping track of 8 kids so much more manageable.

I thought this photo was so funny. Who poses like that? She wanted her picture by this cat, because it was pink and she just laturally posed like this. I just have to chuckle at how funny she is sometimes.

First Day of School. . . And Look What I Did

2010-08-23T14:20:00.004-05:00

Well, today was our first day of school. We have a new school right at the end of our street- so nice! And the kids were super excited to be "walkers". Zach was kind of put out that mom and dad were walking with them to school, but Evan was glad. Oh, they grow up so fast! Doesn't Gabe look super excited to be going to school!

Last night we did a special FHE about going back to school. I made these placemats for the kids to hopefully help them get ready for school without me having to nag them all morning long. (Natalie's is missing because she wanted to color it herself and it wasn't done when I took the pic) And I laminated them so they can use it for breakfast and remember what they are suppose to do. We shall see if my efforts were worth it. But I thought they turned out super cute, considering I am not an artist in the least!

And then while the kids were at school today I made this! My neighbor and I have been wanting to start building projects from my fav website and we did our first one today. We still have to paint it, but I can't believe we finally did something. Hopefully our next project goes a lot smoother, this one took us a little longer than we would have liked. But it is done. Can't wait to paint it. That is tomorrow project!! But my poor house. Thank goodness I have an amazing husband that worked super hard on the house (even on his day off!) because our dishes are done, 3 loads of laundry have been done, he mowed the lawn and went to the dentist all while I was playing with wood. What am I going to do tomorrow when he is gone?

Little Halloween Preview

2010-08-11T09:11:00.003-05:00

Sunday has become very relaxing here at our house. We have morning church, so we have most of the day to relax and spend time together. This last Sunday Gabe and I got a nap in- YES!! But while we were napping our boys were pondering. Zach and Evan decided that they were going to give us a preview of what they were going to be for Halloween. It was great! Have a look for yourselves as to what goes on in the minds of my boys!

While at my parents house the saw a show that my dad has a soft spot for-Walker Texas Ranger. And now that soft spot has rubbed off on a few of their cousins. They are both intrigued by the character and think he is great. Oh, the shirts I could buy them.

So, Evan wants to be Walker Texas Ranger, facial hair and all. Someone even gave us cowboy boots that are about 2 sizes too big for Ev, but he doesn't care.

Zach has a deep passion for baseball and a very good memory. He has started collecting baseball cards and will read the backs of them like it is an intense novel. It might be a little OCD, he will take them anywhere with him. In fact that was in his pack for the plane trip for entertainment, and they indeed do entertain him for hours. But he can remember almost everything he reads from the backs of those cards. So and so played for that team in this year- it boggles my mind. Anyway he wants to be A.J. Pierzynski from the White Sox.

I love the look on both of their faces, so serious. Oh the imaginations of children. I really hope they never loose that imagination. We shall see what really happens come Halloween. But for now we have quite the show at our house.

Family Reunions=Vacation Time

2010-08-11T07:52:00.011-05:00

My family has been spread out pretty good for the last few years. And before that we had never been home all at the same time. So when my sister moved home from Germany we decided it would be a good time to have everyone home at Grandma's. My kids have never really experienced a family reunion, so I was excited for what was in store for them.
Grandma's house +cousins=a great time! I took so many pictures, but I picked just a few. We even had family pictures done, I will post those when we get our copy of the disk. It was a long trek to get there and we were very blessed getting there and coming home. The Lord is ever mindful of us and our prayers. We wouldn't have made it without His help.

The cousins enjoying a treat after an intense treasure hunt. It is an odd angle, I was trying to get everyone in on the shot.

Natalie got to experience cousins for the first time. Madyson is only 2 months younger than Natalie (they are the closest cousins in age). They had a blast together. They played so well together and were always together. I loved it!

Even Evan, who hates kisses, had a great time being with family. My sister loves to give him a hard time about kisses and he eats it up. I just realized I forgot to take a picture of something that he created while we were there. Evan loves dirt and there is a lot of it at my parents house. Right underneath a raingutter he started a "Grand Canyon" (that's what he called it) and he made it about 8 feet long. Then he would put the hose at the end and stomp in the mud. He loved it. What a kid! He is growing up so fast. I can't believe he is going to be 8 next month!

One of my kids favorite thing to do is play with Grandpa's sling shots. I can't tell you how many water balloons we filled, but it was a lot. Zach was really good at it. He could shoot it the farthest. He was very proud of himself.

After the reunion we headed down to Utah and spent half a day at Temple Square. We love to visit this place and the kids had not been in quite a while. Gabe and I envisioned this visit to be like most- see this and that, spend about an hour and be on our way. But the kids were so involved in everything and then some sisters took us on a family tour. That was the best part of the day! Gabe and I both were so impressed, we highly recommend it if you haven't done it. It was very well done. I still remember how I felt during the presentation.

We were able to see some good friends while we were there. Lots of fun catching up and just relaxing together. We did take the kids to a splash park, where Natalie experienced getting soaked with your clothes on. (We left her swim suit at Grandma's) At first she didn't want to, but the water was just too tempting.

After making it back home and into the intense heat we wanted to do something as a family. And I discovered one of the wonderful things about living in Texas- there is never a shortage of water parks and there is a price for almost anyone's budget. We really wanted to go to Hurricane Harbor or Hawaiian Falls, but once you pay for 5 people you might as well go to a beach.

Luckily we found a nice little one that fit the wants of our little family and the price was great!! And because we didn't fork out a ton we didn't feel like we had to stay forever to get our money's worth. The kids had a great time, the lines were not long for the slides, there were area's to just relax in the water. It was all around a great day! So if you visit us in the summer we might just take you here.

Now the summer is almost over and I am very sad. I love having my kids home. But I am not good at keep a structure of school work over the summer. They need structure. School starts in about 2 weeks. I have such mixed emotions. I really want to home school so they can have a more hands on learning experience and be able to be outdoors more. I registered them for school last week and found out that their recess has changed from 20 min to 15 min. They get one recess right after lunch and it is 15 min. That just makes me so sad that they only get 15 min to be have fun. Preschool starts a week after school does and that will keep me busy. But that is good, I need structure as well. Anyway, hope the rest of your summer is filled with laughter and smiles.

Summer Begins

2010-06-20T16:01:00.005-05:00

Summer has begun! And this is a great picture to let you know what we do a lot of at our house right now. It has become a family favorite past time.

Here is a little bit of what else we have been up to.

School got out the first week of June, Yay! We had a little break the next week, but then this last week has been packed full of stuff. Zach had cub scout day camp all week and all day.

Natalie had a birthday and turned 4!!

Evan and Natalie started swimming lessons, which are every day for 2 weeks. And my sister, who has been in Germany for the last 3 years came for a quick visit with her husband. It was super good to spend some time with her and her husband.

This is my sister that visited and this is Natalie's cake. She wanted another castle cake this year, but pink and purple. This one didn't turn out as cute as I had hoped. One- the colors are not what I would have picked, but she is 4 and who cares! Two- the towers weren't as tall as I wanted. But Natalie absolutely loved it! She helped decorate it, if you couldn't tell. Those flags were not designed by me, although it does look a lot like my art work! And she picked all of these characters from her toys to put on there. I can't believe they grow up so fast.

Free Sonic Ice Cream May 29th

2010-05-26T20:24:00.002-05:00

Here is a link to print a coupon to get a FREE Ice Cream cone at Sonic. It is for this Friday only. What a cheap way to celebrate the end of school!!!

http://printable.couponfeed.net/stores/sonicdrivein/12887c31b191b622.html

Life is getting away from me!

2010-05-12T14:51:00.005-05:00

No excuses. I just need to organize my life better so I can post more. Here is what we have been up to for the month of April. We started off with a big bang and got snow! I really wonder what is happening to Texas. I'm freezing here! But the kids love it.

I have decided that I need to grow an apple tree, maybe even an orchard. However apple trees don't do too well where we live. Our soil is bad. This kid of mine eats easily 5 apples a day. Those 5lb. bags that they sell in the stores, we go through 2 bags in about 5 days. One cashier made a comment one time as he scanned my 3 bags of apples, "Wow, you guys really like apples." I told him it was for my 7 year old. He was flabbergasted and chuckled that he must be very regular. Oh boy, you have no idea how regular and I won't go into that here. But he is my most healthy child. Hence, 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'. Evan loves this philosophy.

Spring is here and with it a little bit of heat. Now that it is warming up the kids can't understand why the pool is not open. But there's always a sprinkler. I love having a trampoline and a yard. Those are probably my most favorite things about being in a home. And I can grow a garden, which isn't doing as well as it did last year. I didn't get my onions in and now I have pest problems. Lesson learned-always plant onions in my garden to keep bugs away. But here comes the summer and I am so excited for all my kiddos to be home more and for us to be able to play. As long as we stay away from the 100 degree for a little while longer.

Gabe's parents were able to come and visit us for a few days. The kids love seeing their grandparents. Especially when they come to watch them play baseball. Gabe is Evan's coach this season and Evan has absolutely loved it. Natalie can't wait to be able to play soccer next year. Goodness they grow up so fast. I wish I could freeze time for just a little while.

My boys have become quite the baseball fans. They love playing, watching and talking baseball, more specifically Texas Rangers. They are FANS!! This was our first game as a family this season and we had fun, even Natalie (I was surprised). We made it through the whole game.

This actually is part of May, but I figured since I am on a roll why stop. My little preschool group took a field trip to a local zoo and we had so much fun. Their favorite part was feeding the giraffe. His tongue was soooo long. They are such fun kids and I am going to miss them terribly once school is out. Natalie will miss them too. Every day she asks if she is having preschool that day.

My kids. What can I say? They are so very different from each other. I wish they could stay this way for a little while longer. My memory is getting so bad, I can't remember things that they can. I don't feel that old, but I am getting up there. They love walking around our lake in the neighborhood and this is their favorite spot. Sitting on the dock just watching the water. I am so grateful for technology and being able to capture them for my memory sake.

I will try and do better at keeping you updated more often. And I will try to comment on your blogs more often. I don't comment a lot. My life right now is so busy. When I get a chance to look at blogs it isn't for very long. I hope you are all doing wonderful and your families are healthy. Have a wonderful month and enjoy the last few days before summer!

Overlooked

2010-02-10T22:31:00.003-06:00

Today I was talking with my sister and she pointed out that I had not posted Evan's cake on here. I feel awful I didn't post about my sons birthday. He turned 7 back in Sept and wanted a Phineas and Ferb cake. But of course there was nothing in the stores at that time to do such a cake, so I had to result to doing my own. It turned out pretty good and Evan was trilled, which is all that matters in the end. Evan is a great kid and keeps us all laughing, just see the side bar. And now this year he will be 8! I can't even believe it. I remember when he was born. Tomorrow it is suppose to snow here, which doesn't happen often, I hope they close school. I want a day with my kids!

The wording didn't turn out great. I didn't have much time to do those and by the time I got to those I just wanted to be done with this thing! But for not being an artist- at all - I was pleased you could just tell what it was suppose to be. (You should some of my artistic skills, Natalie is often questioning what my drawings are suppose to be.)

The elated birthday boy! I think they get cuter every year.

I definitely need to write about this! All Evan wanted for his birthday was a pet. Well, Gabe and I aren't too keen on those yet. So, we decided to start minimal. We got a fish. These 3 kids sat and watched 3 fish swim in a 5 gallon tank for over 1/2 hour! They were completely mezmerized! We let each of the kids pick out a fish, hence the 3. By day 3 Evan's fish died. He was so sad. Luckily the store has a 2 week period where you can bring back your dead one and get a new-how nice. Because our tank is so small and we have 3 inhabitants we needed to find something smaller. We found a cute aqua frog that doesn't need dry land in the tank. He thought that was great. Then, about 3 days later we wake up and the frog is dead. Evan just fell apart, "How come my pets are the only ones dying?" I felt for him. He didn't want to try again, because he felt like they would just keep dying. We finally convinced him to try again and we got another frog and that one is going strong still!!!

I had to remember our experience with our first pets. And after this I don't know if we will get any larger than a small tropical fish or frog! Some people just aren't cut out for pets.

Cartoons can be good

2010-01-29T17:41:00.003-06:00

For right now, I love cartoons! I just recieved a back and head massage, plus a foot rub with cream. And it was all from my kids! They saw an episode of Phineas and Ferb, the one when they make their own backyard spa. So, my kids decided to do a spa here and I was the spa attendee, lucky me! They all wanted to take turns doing each one, so really it was like 3 massage rotations. Raising kids can be hard, but today it payed off!

Sorry for the break

2010-01-27T13:48:00.005-06:00

I am so sorry that it has taken me a while to get back here. I have actually had my computer back since Christmas, but it just takes me a long time to get back into the swing of things. I wish life would slow down, it is all going by so fast. I have been super busy with Relief Society, we got a new president so we are busy restructuring stuff. Preschool keeps me busy, although I am hoping next year it won't be as busy because I will have the lesson plans pretty much done. And of course family. Evan decided he wanted to enter the science fair this year and it happened to be the same week as our Pinewood Derby and baseball tryouts! It is nice to be busy and not feel lazy, but I love a lazy day every now and then!
Here are a few pics of what we have done as of late.

This is for my sisters, who have waited a long time for Halloween pics- thanks for the costumes Mel! I promise Natalie was a lot happier than she looks.

In November we had Zach's birthday and I was relieved when he asked for something simple for a cake, although I was a little more pleased with how Evan's turned out than this simple one. But they all taste the same and my kids don't care, they think each one looks great! (He wanted what was on his baseball shirt to be on his cake, hence the number 7)

We had our first white Christmas in Texas!!! I think I read somewhere that the last time this happened was in 1929!! It actually snowed 2 times the week of Christmas. We had a blast playing in the snow, even dad came and had a snowball fight! Then we used all the snow we could find to make a snowman.

Last week Evan dressed up for Career day at school and he wanted to be a pilot. He was disappointed when we told them what they wear. Luckily a neighbor had some stuff from ages ago and he thought that was much better! (He was, however, afraid that the kids would think he was Amelia Earhart!) I love my little Evan!

Last week in preschool we talked about Space and this is what they did one day. We made space helmets and jet packs. We even tried astronaut ice cream!! Isn't being a kid so much fun.

COMPUTERS- Can we live without them for more than a week?

2009-11-20T23:25:00.002-06:00

Well, we can answer that question and it is a great big NO! How did we become so dependent upon technology? I am finally posting after a very long time. There are many reasons why it has been so long. 1-My new preschool is taking a lot of time, mainly lesson planning; 2-New calling at church; 3-My camera is being funny and I can't get pics onto my computer. So, bottle all these things up and you all have to go without a post for a long time. And now here I am and I bet you're thinking - finally we are going to get some more posts. Well, our computer has finally given up. We have been without a computer for a little more than 2 weeks. It has been extremely hard! I am currently trying to find a talk show that asks if you can live without a computer and then Oprah comes out and gives all the participants a free computer!! I am here and ready, they wouldn't even have to wait to do their show, I have already done the hard part. Unless you don't want to know anything about the world or keep in touch with those that you can't via the phone (this includes mothers with kids at home, we all know what happens with kids when that phone rings!) this is completely impossible.
I am currently at my mothers typing this. Hopefully I can get a few pics up of the last few months, I know I feel so bad that it has been months since I put pics up. I am only here for 2 days, so I will see what I can do. But after that I can't promise when we will be back online. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Hopefully we will be back before then, but if we aren't we wish you a very happy holiday.

Listen to this!!!

2009-10-06T09:22:00.002-05:00

I don't recall who told me about this, but Thank You! I love this arrangement. It is absolutely beautiful and energizing. I so wish that I still played the viola when I hear songs like this. This is a time when my music teacher and mother were right: I would end up regreting that I didn't put more into my playing.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfH2BY5pdLw

Finally- Pictures

2009-08-15T10:04:00.005-05:00

I finally got pictures put on CD. So here are a ton of them! Our summer has been filled with so many different things. Here is a little of what we have been up to:

Over the summer Evan has become my little scientist. He want to try experiment with something every day. Here he wanted to mix water, salt and food coloring! When nothing happened he put in more colors and then some sugar. Nothing! Then he put it outside to see what heat would do. The great thing about it was that every time there was no reaction, he didn't get frustrated. I hope he keeps up the experiments(to an extent!).

Evan was a trooper and volunteered to help me snap beans. I wanted to freeze them so that we can have fresh beans in the winter. We love crunchy beans! We also froze broccoli and blueberries. Our garden was good to us, as long as we remembered to water him. We had a strawberry almost every morning waiting for us. I was trying it out to see how well they would do, next spring I will have to plant a lot more of those. Natalie and Evan were always trying to get more. My raspberry plant didn't make it, but I forgot to water it for a little while. But the blackberry bush is taking over. Hopefully in the spring we will have some blackberries!!!! I really want to plant in Sept, but not sure what is good to plant in the fall here. If any of you have let me know, otherwise I will be doing some research in that area.

We spent a lot of time swimming. We probably went to our pool 3-4 times a week, plus throw in a water park here and there. I didn't realize until moving to Texas how much I love swimming and being in the water. Zach and Evan loved the slides, as did Dad! And this water park was great, it has water slides for all ages and all fear levels. I was impressed at some of the ones Zach went on. We spent forever there and then we come home and zonked out!

highlight of our summer- Disneyworld!!! Gabriel and I were talking and realized that we have gone probably 4 times, but always quick trips. This time we went and were able to spend some nice quality time at the parks and with his parents. The kids still managed to have more fun splashing in puddles and goofing around. It rained pretty hard 2 days we were there.

We did a late night swim, which the kids thought was great! To them it was like getting away with something! Zach and Evan's highlight was driving the little boats with Grandpa and Dad.

And Natalie's was seeing the characters. She had to give everyone a hug!

Our summer is almost over and I can't believe the end is near. I loved having my kids home this summer. I am not ready for them to start school. I wish I could home school them. It is very tempting at times. School starts on the 25th and I am so sad, but I will have something to fill Nat's and my time --I am starting a preschool out of my home this year. I am very excited and a little nervous. I have always wanted to do this, it has been a dream of mine for years. I just hope I can recruit enough kids to make it work. Wish me luck!!

Pres. Hinckley Quote

2009-07-22T21:44:00.002-05:00

Recently I read a book with quotes from Pres. Hinckley and his wife. They were all directed to women and were very comforting. I would love for everyone to hear them, but don't want to overwhelm you with a ton of quotes. So, I will try to post 1 a week and hope that you find comfort and strength as I did in reading them.

My dear sisters, you marvelous women who have chosen the better part, I stand in great admiration for all that you do. I see your hands in everything . . . Many of you are mothers, and that is enough to occupy one’s full time. You are companions – the very best friends your husbands have or ever will have . . . You are nurses. With every illness that comes along, you are the first to be told about it and the first to respond with help. In cases of serious sickness, you are the bedside day and night, comforting, encouraging, ministering, praying.

Mission memory

2009-07-22T21:24:00.005-05:00

Part of my mission in Chicago was spanish speaking and I loved it! The people love to give us something when we would leave their houses. One of my fondest memories was when they would give us mangoes. Of course we wouldn't have knives with us to cut them open. So, my companion and I would peel them with our teet and then savor every last bite we could get. I recall the juice just running down our arms and dripping off our elbows. They were so good!

Well, I read a post on a friends blog a while ago about a mango and it brought back this memory. It had me craving a mango, but they are expensive. Then our farmer's market had them on sale 3/$1. I jumped on it! I tried to get my picky eaters to try it. My die hard fruit boy took on the challenge. He was skeptical, but once he took a bite he was hooked. In 1 day we had all 3 eaten. And today at the store he saw them again and he begged me to get more, lucky for him they are still on sale. I picked out 1 and then had a hard time finding another. I thought he was going to break down right there in the store over a mango! Don't worry I found 2 more good ones and all is good. When I tried to calm him down he says, "I don't think I can eat anything else unless I get more of those." What do I do next week when the mangoes aren't on sale?
But I am glad that he enjoys them as much as I do.

Pay It Forward

2009-06-22T20:59:00.002-05:00

A few of my fellow bloggers have had this up and I am taking the challenge also. I like how it was worded on one blog "that we can do two things: 1) Find value in homemade again and 2) Send something to people without needed reward."

Here's the deal. The first 5 people to leave a comment here will get a homemade gift from me. The only catch is that you have to pay the gift forward by reposting this on your blog. I will check to make sure you've done so. I don't know what the gift will be, but it will be homemade. I'll get it to you sometime soon. I don't promise you'll love it, but I'm not going to make you something I think you'll hate, either, because that would be like an un-gift and defeat the entire purpose.

Let's have some fun.

Happy Birthday Natalie!!!

2009-06-16T14:35:00.004-05:00

I can't believe it has been 3 years since this day! This is our little girl and she has been so fun, but a lot more work than my 2 boys.

The day before her birthday we went to the mall and passed this cookie shop. They had this cookie in the window and the kids loved it. How funny that they would have this up right before her birthday! What a nice surprise!

We celebrated her day on Monday, since I was no where close to do it on Sunday. She went with me to one of her favorite places: the dentist. I was due for a cleaning and she wanted hers done again! Then we went and got ice cream to go with her cake and had lunch. The boys went with Gabe to get Natalie something. The boys loved showing her how to open her presents. She loved what they picked out: a princess tent, a barking dog (her pet), and a Diego game. Life is good at the Peterson home!

The "icing on the cake" was her castle cake. She picked this out days ago and couldn't wait for me to make it. She asked everyday if we could make her cake. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it; 1-I didn't have the right size pans & 2-I had 2 anxious boys who wanted to help decorate it. They did the purple tower tops and the flower and vines all over the cake. I love to make a master piece and so as they were deciding where to put the purple tops and the flowers and such I cringed! But I kept reminding myself in 10 years what do I want them to remember from this moment;1-a mom who is extremely picky about where a purple cone is placed or 2-a fun time decorating their sisters cake. I opted for the 2nd. We had fun and I was able to do most of it while she napped!

A perfect ending to a perfect day!

Something new

2009-06-16T14:05:00.004-05:00

Dad gave Zach a new chore to do the other day. Zach was really excited before he started. I don't think he lasted 5 min. Can you tell he was not having fun? But it probably didn't help that I picked the hottest day and the hottest time to have them out there working.
So. . . . Evan said he wanted a turn. And he loved it! He wanted to do more and more. I was kind of worried about him pushing up the hill, he is so little and it looked like it would just run him over. But he told me when we were done that next time he wants to be able to mow more.

Natalie has very little hair, as most of you know. She just turned 3 and for the first time, on her birthday, I was able to put two little pigtails! I was so excited that she actually has enough hair for 2! It was fun to actually play with her hair. I only hope that she will let me for a few years.

catch up!!

2009-06-15T22:03:00.003-05:00

Here is a lot of catch up- sorry! I don't know what happened to me. There is more than this, but that will come up tomorrow or the next day, we shall see.
I sent the kids outside to play one day, shortly after Gabriel had put our bird bath in the back yard. He cleaned it all out and had it looking very nice. Well, I went outside to check on the kids after a few minutes and this is what I found. They dumped their bubbles in the bird bath and proceeded to play! Gabriel had to wash it out again!

Our dinosaur find!

After a walk with Dad one day Evan came home convinced he had found a dinosaur bone on a dirt road by our house. He asked for day to go and dig it up. Finally he took his counter partner and tools in hand he did it. He did it so carefully with a digging tool you get with one of those toy dinosaurs that you dig out, a sponge brush and a shovel.

And this is what he found! He says it is the head of a small dinosaur. Do you think we should turn it into a museum?

Dentist Visits

Natalie begged to have her teeth cleaned after watching her brothers. The office was so nice and got her right in. She loved sitting in the chair with those glasses that are too big for her. She let them clean her teeth and even take x-rays of her front teeth. She woulnd't go for the flouride tray. But I will take what she did do. That is more than my boys did before they were 5 and she just turned 3!

Trips!!!

2009-05-11T21:34:00.005-05:00

This is why I have been so busy lately.

1-My dryer!!! Yes, I am still trying to fix it. I can't tell you how many time I have taken it apart. I think I have called the appliance place so many times the lady is ready to have my number blocked.

2-Sports. Both boys are involved in sports, 2 different and somehow they end up at the same time. Soccer has ended, baseball is still going. They keep cancelling due to weather. But for now we are scheduled to end on the 28th, as long as they don't reschedule beyond that.
3-Trips

SAN DIEGO

In April Gabriel and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. Considering we can fly anywhere and we have never taken advantage of that together, Gabriel surprised me with a trip to San Diego. And he even arranged for a couple friend of ours, who also is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year, to meet us there. We were limited on time, but we had a wonderful time there. It was absolutely gorgeous and the weather was wonderful. Our friend, Brandon, had done research on restaurants and they all turned out to be really good. We stayed at a hotel right on the bay across from Coronado Island and we took a ferry over to the island. We saw the Coronado hotel and walked along the beach. It was so nice to not have kids and just enjoy ourselves.

There is a funny story about this hotel and me, but I will only tell you if you ask. Angela and I got the biggest laugh out of it. I will just say, I didn't do research like her husband did.
We saw this statue by some other military sights and I thought it was hilarious. The thing was huge! Come to find out it is on loan. So, hurry on over to San Diego to get a look.

Good food, good friends and good times. Thanks Brandon & Angela, we can't wait till our next trip!

CHICAGO

Gabriel and I both served missions for our church in Chicago. We have been telling our kids for a couple of months now about Chicago pizza(our kids love pizza). They have been waiting very patiently. So, when the swine flu hit and they closed the schools for a week we decided we would go! Gabe had the day off and the kids were out for a few days, weather was good and flights weren't too bad--so we went. It was not the best trip we have taken. We left our house around 4:30 am and got home around 11:00pm, yes we did it in one day. Our poor kids. They loved the "el" train, weren't too impressed with the pizza (Evan thought it was pie), they loved throwing rocks in Lake Michigan, playing in the sand, and their mouths finally watered as we walked through the Lego store on Michigan Avenue.

We went all the way to Chicago to find this wonderful rock!

And to play in Chicago sand! No matter where you go, boys will find dirt and rocks and be perfectly content. Why did we have to go so far to find this out?

This was the only time Evan smiled in the restaurant. He only tasted the cheese, which was about 2/3 of the pizza. Zach ate his piece, wasn't his favorite, but he ate it. Natalie threw a royal fit and then zonked out on my shoulder. She slept the rest of the time we were there.

She is following in her brother's footsteps. Will lego's never end at our house. Natalie did this the whole time we were at the Lego store, she just kept asking for more flowers. Eventually they ran out, so it was time to go

We have had a fun and busy couple of weeks, and now the end of school is coming and I don't even have my summer schedule close to being done. I actually haven't even started it, it's just all in my head now. Hopefully I will have it done, before school ends.

Better late than never

2009-05-11T21:28:00.004-05:00

I know I am almost a month late with this picture, actually I think I am! I have been crazy busy for the last month or so, which is why I have not responded to anyones emails or commented on anyones blogs. I have been looking for brief moments, but no long enough to comment. So sorry. But here is a quick photo from Easter. I was trying to get one before church, because after church Natalie is a bear or she is asleep. However we were running late, even though we don't meet until 1:00!! I don't know how that happens. Too bad that only 1 out of 3 is looking at the camera and 2 out of 3 are completely dressed. But I am glad that 3 out of 3 were actually all happy to go to church that day!

Our week's Summary

2009-04-05T21:12:00.004-05:00

When food dislikes interfere with your fun
Evan is going to be a boy that loves April Fool's Day. He was thinking of stuff all day to try and trick people. Zach wanted to put ketchup on him to pretend he was bleeding. Evan thought that was cool, but he doesn't like ketchup so he thought he would use something else that is red. On Thursday he comes home from school and asks me if ink on your skin can give you ink poisoning. And then he shows me his hand. He was so excited to try and trick his dad and proud that he beat his brother to it! But then mom made him wash it off.

What I have been up to this week
Our dryer hasn't been drying very well lately and it seems to just be getting worse. I called a service guy to schedule to come look at, and it is $60 to just come look at, not to mention if there is anything that need replaced or labor hours. So, I have been reading up everything I can to figure out how I can do it myself. What I thought was the problem ended up not being right. But I tore the dryer apart, took the part in to have it tested, and then put it back together. When that wasn't the problem I thought maybe there is a clog in the vent leading outside, but that isn't it either. Bottom line I tried so hard to avoid a service fee and be independent but I guess some things you just can't get away with. Darn it!!! I hate spending money that I know I could save if I just knew more about things like this.

"Take me out to the ball game. . ."

Zach had his 2nd game on Sat and was so excited, he made an out and he hit the ball and made it to 1st base! What a day. I love the first picture you can see his team mate in the back telling him to run. He was playing 3rd baseman and he tagged the base and then when the player got to 3rd base I think Zach tagged him at least 2-3 times. He was going to make sure that he got him out! This was really good for him considering both games he gets up to bat in the last inning with 2 outs and bases are loaded and then he strikes out. Gabe and I don't think he realizes the whole picture, but he was really upset his first game that they lost. He came home crying and very upset. Sports can be so good for kids, but hard.

My Dear Sweet Husband

2009-03-31T13:45:00.003-05:00

I have a great husband!! I know cheesy, cheesy!! But he reads my blog and I wanted him to know how wonderful I think he is.
Gabriel went on his first camp out this last weekend with the Boy Scouts. I was impressed and worried the whole time. It was pretty cold that night. He said there was a little bit of snow flurries when they woke up Saturday. But they had fun! And I am so impressed with him. Way to go Gabriel!!

We have had many a discussion about doing thoughtful things. So, last night this is what I found on my pillow. Yes, I did watch the movie and read the books, but am not one of the obsessed ones. But this box cracks me up! Can you read what some of the hearts say? Hilarious!!

Thanks Gabe! I love you.

When Mom and Dad are sick. . . .

2009-03-22T16:37:00.006-05:00

What do you do when mom and dad are both sick? Just ask our kids that entertained themselves all day today while Gabe and I have taken turns sleeping and just taking it easy.
So, this is what our kids did to pass the time.

1. Build a "water track" to drive your boats down the hill to the pool.

2. Find all kinds of creatures while digging in the dirt. We discovered worms and some slimy thing, we think it is a snail.

3. Bury treasure in your backyard, Mom and Dad don't care if you make a hole in the grass.

4. Play pirates with each other.

It really amazes me sometimes what kids can come up with when left to find fun on their own. Makes me wonder why we have a playroom full of toys. Kids are amazing.

Spring Break

2009-03-22T15:56:00.005-05:00

We had Spring Break this last week and it wasn't as we had planned, but in the end I think the kids had fun just having a break from school. I know I sure did. Evan started getting sick last Sunday and was sick for most of the week, Natalie followed him a few days later and then me and now Gabe has it. We wanted to take the kids up to Chicago for the day and go get Giordano's. The kids have talked about it for weeks. I did a mini class for our last Primary Activity about serving a mission in Chicago and pizza was talked about it. Zach had asked if they had ever eaten it and Gabe and I decided that would be fun for the day. Well, due to the fact that St. Patrick's is a huge deal in Chicago, the flights were all packed for most of the week. So, we will have to pull them out one day and do that later. And since 2 of 3 were sick we just hung around the house. (How fun is that!?)

A tip from a friend lead to this. I sent the kids out to "wash" the trampoline. We put soap and water all over the and they had so much fun. It was the best slip and slide too! Zach said it was the best chore ever!

We went to the park one day and had our first ant attack. Minutes before we were leaving Natalie fell on top of an ant hill and got quite a few bites. It was a scarry few minutes. As we were leaving the park Natalie says to me, "Thanks for saving me Mom." How is it that a 2 year old can make you feel like a million bucks? I got a few bites myself trying to get them off of her and she is always coming up pointing to them and will say, "You got bit? You saved me from the ants?" She is a little terrifed of going to the park now, but hopefully will soon forget.

And we did cleaning. The kids were great about helping out, especially since they were rewarded with a new Wii game dad had borrowed.

While the boys cleaned the house, Natalie was cleaning herself. She would put foamy soap on a brush and rub it in her hair. After I captured her she went and got her hair washed and not 10 min later she was back doing the same thing. I have had to put all our foamy soap way out of her reach!

Gabriel took Friday and Saturday off and we went to an indoor water park on Friday. The kids had a blast. It was very crowded, but fun. Not anything fancy, but we had fun being together and I will be sad to have my boys gone all day tomorrow. Spring break is a very nice break!

My Cowboy

2009-03-07T08:43:00.003-06:00

Evan's kindergarten class has been learning all about Texas and for the finale they were to dress up as cowboys and girls. Well, other than a hat I didn't have anything for him to dress up. The shirt I picked didn't have long sleeves and apparently cowboys do. "Cowboys wear boots, not tennis shoes" Evan informed me that morning. And the bandana that I had intended for him to wear around his neck appeared to be too close to what a cowgirl would wear. So, he is looking at himself in the mirror saying that the kids aren't going to be sure he is a cowboy. (How is it that kids 'know' everything!) I suggested that I could put a mustache on him to make it more western. Well, long story short he agreed and we all had a good laugh. He went to school a lot more excited about his costume. He came home just as excited, no one else had a mustache!

What a cute cowboy!

At it again

2009-02-26T13:54:00.003-06:00

We had our Blue and Gold this last week. Our theme was Cities Across America. We took our menu from an old time diner menu: hamburgers and hot dogs. Therefore, we had cakes made the same. A neighbor of mine is a genius when it comes to cakes. We had a little trouble with the hot dog, but it still looked pretty good and it was all cake, minus the hot dog which were twinkies! The boys thought they were great and that is all that mattered.

Lesson Learned

2009-02-26T13:30:00.003-06:00

We had our 1st Pine Wood Derby back in Jan (I know, this is so late). Gabe nor I had ever built one, so we were unaware of the little tricks to help your car go fast. So, when it came time to race Zach was so pumped for the first few races. After about the 6th or 7th he started to realize that his car wasn't very fast. In fact he lost all of the races. It was so sad to watch his face get longer and longer as each race ended. Oh how I wanted to take his pain away. Afterward we had so many people tell us to do this or do that, where were they when we were making it? Well, it was a good lesson to teach Zach and remind me: Learn from your mistakes and do better the next time. Next year he is going to have a great car!!! LESSON LEARNED

1st race, he was so excited!

3rd race, his is the last one. Can you tell he is loosing his excitement?

Valentine Party Hype

2009-02-26T13:16:00.003-06:00

Valentine's Day has become quite the day since I was in school. I helped with my children's class parties this year, I am amazed at how many parents don't participate. This party was as big a deal as their Christmas party. The kids had fun and got loads of sugar! And Natalie is lucky she has 2 brother's in school, she got to go to 2 parties!!

Much needed advice

2009-02-04T10:02:00.002-06:00

I hope that some of you can help. Recently my son said a "word" that is, well for lack of terms, a swear word. We talked about it and how we don't say certain words. I explained, I thought, what the word was. But then last night at his Pinewood Derby he dropped the same word again! I wasn't around, so Gabriel talked to him. So, hopefully we won't hear the word again.
But here is my question. What do you do if it is said again?
And what about the other words? Do I tell him what the words are so when he hears them he knows right away that it is not a good word? I have told him there are other words and if he hears a word that we don't say here at home to let me know and we can discuss if it an appropriate word or not. But it didn't work with our most recent bomb that was dropped. So, if any of you have any advice on how to handle this I would really appreciate it. Thanks a bunch!!

New hobbies

2009-01-29T14:29:00.004-06:00

Natalie has 2 new hobbies.
1. She loves to "help" mom. She has become my little helper. The other day I set out to make breadsticks for dinner. (Which they are very good and pretty easy. If you would like the recipe let me know) She ran to get an apron and started helping by moving the flour all over the cupboard, chair, floor and anywhere near her. Then she started taste testing the flour and dough and I caught her!

2. Her next new hobby is to do the dishes, aka: play with the water and bubbles! After we were done making our breadsticks I started to wash the dishes and she promptly moved her chair over and said she wanted to help. It isn't always how I want it to go or look, but I hope she holds onto these hobbies and I hope I can too!

Who wouldn't want a face like that doing their dishes?

January in Texas

2009-01-29T14:09:00.003-06:00

The weather here is funny. One day it will be freezing and the next it is in the 70's. You really don't have to pack away your shorts, because chances are you will wear them in January here. This was a few days before our ice storm, last Friday. Natalie and her little friend, Natalie, went to the park to play. I love swings and thankfully so does she and she likes to go really high. She would stay in it for hours, only my arm gets so sore from pushing after the first hour!

She has also discovered the joy of taking "friends" down the slide. What an amazing world kids live in. Where everyone and everything is your friend. I love the weather when it is warm and then it goes really cold where you just want to stay home by the fire. You never get tired of one thing!

What to do when school is cancelled?

2009-01-29T13:16:00.007-06:00

School was cancelled here for 2 days this week due to an ice storm. The ice storms can produce some pretty thick ice. Our ice scrapper broke while my husband was scrapping our cars off! Even today the top of our driveway is still pretty slick and my poor flower bed is still a bed of ice. So, while school was out we played. The boys got creative with our hill and their little sisters toys. I have realized that even if you don't have toddlers, kids will still play with the toys.

This is what we woke up to Wednesday morning. This is our grass changed into little blades of ice. The kids thought it was great how the grass was crunchy.

Zach was amazed at how the ice froze coming out of the drain. A few hours later as it was just pouring water out he was still captured. His poor hands were not dry after this.

The kids were all excited when they saw this and starting planning how they were going to build a snowman! I just chuckled inside and smiled. I wish I could have captured their faces when they went to make a ball with the ice. Utter disappointment and surprise.

But they did enjoy knocking the ice off of everything in sight. Natalie thought that one of our crayons were left outside. She said, "Mommy look. My crayon got cold" After I explained to her what it was I had to keep my eye on her. She wanted to lick all the ice! (she loves ice) That would have been fun to try and fix.

My tulips started to come up just before our storm and now they are part of an ice lake. I hope they survived.

This was their favorite thing. They used Natalie's toys and slid down our hill out back. It was perfect! The fence's shadow kept the ice from melting up there. They had a lot of fun and now they are back in school and I miss them already. Hopefully we can get another storm before winter is over.

Dog sitting

2009-01-05T17:20:00.003-06:00

For the last week we have been dog sitting for some friends while they're out of town. Most people know that I am not a dog person, if it is in the house. I grew up where all animals lived outside and never came in the house. This has been quite an adjustment. Luckily the dog is a small one and trained very well. We have only had 1 accident and she sleeps all night, as far as I know. The kids have absolutely loved having her here. They are constantly asking to take her on a walk, maybe that is why she is sleeping so well at night, we wear her out. The kids love holding her leash and being in charge. Gabe and I never hold the leash, unless there is another dog. Here are a few pics of us walking the dog.

The Things We Do For Those We Love

2008-12-29T09:18:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-28T21:56:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-28T19:53:00.007-06:00

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

2008-12-18T12:11:00.002-06:00

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

2008-10-28T07:56:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-10-19T21:16:00.002-05:00

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!!

2008-09-23T05:42:00.003-05:00

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!!!

2008-09-03T14:34:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-03T14:25:00.005-05:00

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

2008-08-16T12:43:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-16T11:53:00.008-05:00

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

2008-08-16T09:17:00.005-05:00

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

2008-08-16T08:49:00.003-05:00

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

2008-08-13T19:53:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-09T08:35:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-09T08:15:00.005-05:00

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

2008-07-09T07:57:00.007-05:00

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

2008-05-28T22:26:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-04-21T12:54:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-21T12:19:00.005-05:00

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!!!

Easter activities

2008-04-06T22:32:00.003-05:00

Saturday before Easter was our Egg Hunt. Nat loved the Easter bunny, but not our boys. I could not get either one to go near him. And Nat couldn't get enough of him, she just kept walking up to him and resting her head on his lap. It was really cute! Then she found a lady there that had these cute little baby ducks. She and I fell in love with them. I wanted to get one so bad, they were only $10. It seemed like the perfect pet. You keep it for 6 weeks and then take it down to our lake and realease it and you can visit it when you want. My kind of pet. But my husband predicted something bad would happen to the poor thing. Then I read a friends blog (who had 2 baby chicks) and just as my husband had said is what happened to both her chicks. But they were so darned cute!!

Easter Eve I went to check on our kids and this is what I found on the boys top bunk. How can that be comfortable! If I slept like that I would be absolutely sore in the morning. He is hilarious.

I could not get my kids together for an Easter shot on Sunday morning. But I definitely wanted to get one of Nat. I have discovered that I love her in green. She is so darned fun to dress up and she loves for you to tell her that she is pretty.
I never take enough pictures when it is all said and done. I need to just go picture crazy. It is better to have too many than not enough!!

Spring happenings

2008-04-06T21:43:00.004-05:00

We had another soccer game on Saturday and they took pictures. The running pic is to show you how Evan runs. He literally runs just like this-all the time. He is not going to rush himself, just loving life!

For Spring Break we hung around the house and had fun together. One day we went to the zoo and the boys were excited they got to see a baby crocodile! I wasn't very good at taking very many pictures during our break. Gabriel actually had the same week off as well, so we all had fun times.

A late Texas Christmas

2008-03-20T22:08:00.008-05:00

We got our "White Christmas"(a little late) but the kids didn't care. Evan actually thought that Christmas would shortly follow. We had so much fun. It snowed on a Monday night, did you see the great shot with the moon and the snow falling? Really that is a ball our kids left outside, but it looks neat!! As you can see the snow was already melting the next morning. And Natalie really loved eating the stuff!(Yuck!) I could not keep her from putting it in her mouth.

Then it snowed again on Thursday while Zach was in school. They closed school early and they were out on Friday! Yep we actually had a snow day. The kids had so much fun. When Zach came home Thur he went straight for the backyard and started to make a snowman. Evan didn't like the flakes falling on his face, but Zach could care less.

On Friday the finished their snowman and Zach insisted that they had to dance around him, singing the "Frosty" song. Funny, huh! Natalie had breakfast outside!!! Then we went sledding on our great hill in the backyard. We had some make shift sleds, since we thought we would never use a sled in Texas. Even Natalie had fun sledding. By 1:00 the snow was pretty much gone. We sure loved it while it was here.

That morning in our prayers I said that we were thankful Heavenly Father had sent the snow. Evan was amazed that He was the one that sent the snow. So he decided that he was going to pray for snow every day! It hasn't worked yet, but stranger things have happened!

World of sports

2008-03-08T07:21:00.002-06:00

From basketball to soccer we seem to always have a sporting event on Saturday. Thank goodness they are not during the week. Zach finished his first season of basketball and Evan started his first season of soccer. They are so cute out there running after the ball. It is cold somedays, but once they get running they aren't bad. Hopefully we can get a shot with Evan and the ball. Most of the time he just enjoys chasing the rest of the group!

Caking frenzy

2008-03-08T06:59:00.003-06:00

Gabriel is our cubmaster and February was the Blue and Gold Banquet. I volunteered to make a cake for it. This is what I ended up doing. The scouts were excited to have their very own cake and they didn't mind sharing with the rest of the group. The bear and wolf were both out of edible fondant, and a friend painted them not me! They tasted good and that is all that matters!

But next year I will think twice before I volunteer for that again. I was making cakes and decorating all day and late into the night! But I love helping my husband in any way that I can.

Grandparent Fun!!

2008-03-08T06:20:00.005-06:00

My parents came for a visit during February and we had a great time. The kids really enjoyed spending time with them. Zach had them come to school and meet his teacher. We went to a historical spot and saw some long horn cattle. Sunday we just hung around the house and had fun together. We love it when grandparents come, it is like a vacation right here at home! We love you Grandma and Grandpa!!

Books can do your heart good. Especially when you share them with Grandpa! This melts my heart.
Natalie now has an obsession with Grandpa, she wants to either call him on the phone or see a photo of him. It is cute!

We had lots of fun with our grandma and grandpa!

Happy belated Valentines!!

2008-02-24T21:41:00.002-06:00

I saw someone else do this and it was really cute. But my kids, more specifically Natalie, would not cooperate with me. The boys were patient with her and finally Zach took matters into his own hands! We hope you all had a great Valentines. Our kids loved me more after I put the camera away!!

Grandparent gifts

2008-02-24T21:01:00.010-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I did a birthday gift for my in-laws which was a book about the kids and what they would do when they grow up. I used their grandparents as examples and some of the pictures turned out really cute. But I neglected to post some shots. So, here they are. Better late than never, right?

GRANDPA'S
"When I grow up I am going to be a big disney fan, just like grandpa"

"I am going to meet the president of the United States when I grow up"

"When I grow up I want a green thumb, just like my grandpa"

GRAMMY'S BOOK

My husband is very particular about the way his pancakes are made and to this day I have not been able to perfect them. So maybe Nat can!

"I am going to make my daddy's pancakes just the way he likes them, just like my grammy!"

"I am going to love shopping at Kohl's when I grow up"

(My mother-in-law is always calling me and telling me that Kohl's is having a sale. Gabriel can not figure out how that store stays in business)

This was my favorite, minus the poor spray job by mom!

My mother-in-law is always coloring her hair. She will get her mom, sister, or she will do it herself. But it always looks good.

"I am going to color my hair when I grow up"

Seeking Your Help

2008-02-10T16:39:00.000-06:00

I seek your help! A little boy from my primary class was just diagnosed with leukemia this last week. He moved here from Mississippi to live with his dad in a better environment. He comes from a small 3 bedroom apt, occupied by12 people. He is not a member of the church, but was in the process of taking the discussions which was getting his inactive dad back to church! The hospital that he is in says that they can't keep him because he doesn't have insurance. His dad makes too much to qualify for state insurance, and of course he can't get on his dad's insurance with a condition already developed. They are going to transfer him back to Mississippi, where his mom is on medicaid, to be treated there. But then he is back in a pretty sad home situation. I went and visited him in the hospital yesterday, such a humbling experience. I wish there was something that I could do. So, in my feeble attempts to do something I am asking you all. Do you know someone or something that might help this boy to stay in Texas to get the treatment that he needs?
Thanks!!!

Blood or no blood?

2008-02-03T20:38:00.000-06:00

Zach lost his first tooth on Friday!!! We were all so excited. I am a little bummed, cause my pics didn't turn out how I wanted. I really got to get a new camera! Anyway, Gabe and I had been worried about this day and how the events would unfold. We were expecting wailing and a whole bloody scene. His tooth has been loose for about 3 weeks and every day I would tell him to wiggle it. Then Friday he comes home and hands me this little plastic treasure box. Yep, it had his tooth! Apparently he was eating his cracker and out it came. No bloody scene, no wailing. Just excitment and hoorahs!!!

But we did have a good bloody scene 2 days before this, and not from the kids. Gabriel hurt his big toe a couple of weeks ago. It was getting pretty sensitive and wasn't getting any better. So, he went to see a foot doctor. They said that he had bruised the nail pretty good. They said it would heal the best if they removed the nail! Ouch! Kudos to him, he did it. The first day that he took the bandage off it looked pretty bad. I thought about taking a picture for you all, but my stomach couldn't last long enough to focus the camera. Which is probably good for you all!! It looks pretty good now, today is day 4 for him. It is going to take up to 8 months to grow the nail back. But now it just looks like he did a poor job of painting his toe!!!

Hair!!!

2008-01-27T21:11:00.001-06:00

She has hair!!! And enough that I can put some of it in a little ponytail! I was so excited today that I went and bought the little elastic bands. You can't really tell very well, but it is there and it is curly. But it is so fine, a barret won't stay in at all. Soon she will have enough so I can have 2 on her head. But for now, I am just excited that I can get one. Now I just have to get bows that I can attach to the ponytail. Oh, I love having a girl. And a girl with little curls!!! I sure hope she likes it as much as me.

Disney trip

2008-01-27T20:34:00.000-06:00

We recently made a quick trip to Disney World to do the obvious and visit Gabe's parents. (his dad works there, nice added bonus!) We spent just 1 day there, but we had a blast! The boys have been 1 time prior couple years ago, but this was Natalie's first visit. So, we had a ball watching her with many things. We went on a Safari ride at Animal Kingdom and she said "Wow" for every animal she saw. It was cute. We saw the Lion King show, which if you ever get there you have to see that. All of our kids liked that show. It was great!! Then Nat had her first ride, "Dumbo". She did very good waiting in line for almost 25 min, but once we got into the seat she freaked out! She was, as you can see in the picture, really wigged out. Then, once the ride started she was great. She loved it! When it stopped she kept asking, "More?" But not for another 25 min wait, the picture spot will have to do!

................The boys had a blast going on a Buzz Lightyear thing with Dad and Grandpa. Their hightlights were getting cotton candy(apparently we can't get it anywhere else, or maybe it just tastes better here). But if you ask them what their favorite parts were it is as follows:1-Buzz Lightyear ride 2-Cotton Candy 3-Lego store. Our boys loved the lego store at Downtown Disney. There were some pretty amazing things all out of Legos! Zach has found his lot in life. He wants to build the robots he saw with his legos! Good Luck! I don't know if you can tell, but in the picture everything, but our boys is out of legos. It simply was amazing. The funny thing is, I remember seeing this the last time we came. But our boys were young and I just didn't appreciate the fact that these great pieces of work.

For me the best part was watching Nat's reaction to seeing the characters at the Magic Kingdom. We passed Pooh and Tigger and she got all excited. But there was an extremely long line to see them, so we didn't even attempt. But while we waited for the men in the family to do their Buzz thing we saw these two and she was so excited. She has never even seen a picture of Stitch, but she ran right up to him(and we weren't in line) and hugged him. So, then I got in line to see him, it wasn't long at all. She hugged him again. Then we saw Buzz and I thought there is no way she will do the same, he is soft or cuddly. But she loved him. When I picked her up next to him she was poking all over him. I only wish we had enough time to go see more characters, just to get more pictures like this. Hopefully we will be able to go back sometime this year. It was a blast!

late christmas kids

2008-01-16T08:45:00.000-06:00

This was a picture that I wanted to do in front of our Christmas tree, but now the tree is put away. But I really wanted to get a picture of the kids before it got too far past the holidays. Anyway, here is our late Christmas picture of the kids and the process to get there. It was hard getting Natalie to work with me. She has one pose in her and then she is all over the place. And of course the one that she sat for didn't turn out that cute. This was after church, cause they were already dressed up, and they hadn't been fed (bad on my part). But I knew that if I fed them lunch then I was going to remove the clothes and I would not have got the picture I wanted. Hopefully next year I will plan this a little better. To make a long story short, here are our kids!

Notice Zach is smiling and ready in every picture! I love how

Evan is trying to get Natalie to cooperate, he is a great helper

when it comes to her. In the end, it is not a professional, but they are cute and I have to laugh at how much they put up with me.

Roses are Red

2008-01-15T20:47:00.000-06:00

My husband is convinced that when I talk to a friend that it involves husband venting. So, to show you all what a wonderful husband I have here is a picture of what he did the other day! (after he cleaned my toilets, don't forget that!) I love my husband. He wants every day for me to be happy, which makes me love him even more. On the days that I am ready to hang everybody, his positive attitude is the last thing I want to hear. But then I step back and realize how grateful I am for him. When he walked into the kitchen with these all I could do was. . . . . . awwww! He says they are going to die pretty soon, but for now they are beautiful and they are mine!

Independence

2008-01-15T20:28:00.000-06:00

Natalie has become very independent as of late. She wants to do everything herself. I should just hand her the diaper and wipes and call it good!!! But then again. Sunday as we are trying to get ready for church she is eating breakfast. We have a little shaker for powder sugar, which we use for some breakfast foods. Well, she decided that she wanted to shake it on herself. As she pulled it from my hand this is what happened. And we had just washed hair the night before!

I love it when they find that independent bug.

Hoop It Up

2008-01-06T20:45:00.000-06:00

This is Zach's first basketball game! He is really enjoying playing with a team and especially since Dad is the coach. I couldn't get a good shot of their coach! (I think he was trying to avoid the camera!) Our big guy is in the grey shorts and black shoes. He loves having basketball shoes, too! Now, we just need to make a shot and life will be complete for the age of 7!

FHMA (Future Homemakers of America)

2008-01-06T20:40:00.000-06:00

This is Nat's new hobby. She will take dishes out of the washer and set the table! (Good insentive for mom to make sure the dishes in there are always clean) As she puts the dishes on she will say the name of who sits there. It is the cutest thing! The picture of the table is all her. She did that all by herself. And as you can see she can barely see above the table! Let's hope this excitement to help stays for awhile.

Our Christmas

2008-01-05T22:49:00.000-06:00

We had a great Christmas, we stayed in our pjs all day and didn't clean anything! What a wonderful day! We enjoyed watching and teaching Natalie the joys of ripping paper to find a hidden treasure. Dad and Mom put together a trampoline, which we have used everyday since. And then we had a Christmas tree pizza for dinner. It was a great day. I can't believe that it is all packed and tucked away in the attic awaiting another 365 days. It comes so fast and leaves even faster. I love watching the kids faces that magical morning and never seem to quite catch what I want on camera. Maybe I need a faster camera!!! I love the feelings and memories we shared this holiday season. We hope you had a wonderful time as well.

......................................................................................................................................................Christmas Eve we had a party with some friends and the kids did the nativity. Evan was Joseph along with his favorite friend as Mary. It was really cute. "Mary" just loved playing the part, but Joseph was shy as ever. Can you see these two playing Ninja Turtles together and duking it out? Well, trust me they are hilarious.

December shorts and bare feet

2007-12-23T19:19:00.000-06:00

................It was more like spring here the other day. We had shorts and no shoes on. The weather is up and down here. This was 2 days ago and today it is in the 30's. We never know if it is winter or spring.

And then we went to see Santa, which Natalie absolutely loved(J/K). I have been showing her Santa everywhere in hopes to prepare her for the visit, but it didn't work out as I had planned.

We quickly took the picture and got out of there, I am sure Santa was glad that visit was over.

He asked the boys what they wanted for Christmas. As I listned in, I was thrilled to know that I had 2 of the 3 items he listed. Then Evan, who always surprises us, asked for a tool box! That was the first I had heard that one. And of course a dinosaur, I had that one in the bag weeks ago, but a tool box. I have no idea where he got that and I have no idea where he is going to get that. Let's hope he can turn one of his other items into that. And I am sure I did the same thing to my mother. One of the many joys of Christmas.

Christmas visitors

2007-12-23T18:31:00.000-06:00

After we recouped we had family come visit us to start the holiday season. Gabriel's parents came shortly after Thanksgiving from Virginia. We had a nice visit with them and did some fun things with them. The kids wished they could have stayed longer. But thanks to Daddy we can see them fairly often.

Then Grandma Lowder came from Idaho

This is a favorite picture of mine. I was surprised at her reaction to seeing Grandma after 6 months of not seeing her. I am sure it made Grandma feel good too!

Grandma Lowder helped us make many a gingerbread houses. I wanted to get one more in this year, I was going to do a plane for Gabe's work, but I think I am all gingered out! Natalie helped taste the candy and made sure it was okay for babies! She also was constipated for the first time in her life as a result of her tasting job!!

House for Zach's teacher

........Evan's house he gave to his teacher

We had fun with all of our grandparents and can't wait to see them again.

Can I call in sick?

2007-12-04T11:53:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving was great at our house. We went to a friends house and enjoyed being with another family. Gabriel and I were reflecting the other day. We realized this is the first year in awhile that we have spent Thanksgiving with someone and the first year that he will not have to work Christmas day!! Santa usually visits our house the day after or day before, because daddy works in the morning. But this year Santa will be coming on the 25th!!! What simple pleasures I have!!

Anyway, just before Thanksgiving came our three little family members started to come down with something. Then after Thanksgiving we got nailed with it. (Hence, the lack of posting) Then the other night I was begging to call in sick and do you think they took my call?! I put all the kids to bed, Gabe was at work, and then finished picking up the house. Then as I was laying in bed, Natalie woke up screaming! I went in to see to her and she was all plugged up and couldn't breathe. I tried everything, but nothing seemed to work. So, after 1 1/2 hours of trying to get her to sleep I caved and brought her into bed with me. Hoping that if she layed on one of our pillows she could breathe. Just after we had settled into bed, Zach came in coughing up a storm. So, Nat and I put him back in bed, opened a window, got him a drink and propped up his bed. Then she and I went back to bed and got all ready to snooze and dad comes home! She was so excited to see him, it's 11:00pm mind you (she has never been up past 9:00, she's having a ball!!) He went to check on Zach, who is on the other end of the house and you can hear him hacking away. (I couldn't believe Evan was sleeping through all this, I wish they all were)

We couldn't get Zach to stop coughing and it was so constant and hard, it scared me at times. So, after about 30 min of none of us sleeping, except Evan, I took Zach into a steaming bathroom. Oh, how I hoped this would work. (All I wanted to do was sleep, even though with Nat in our bed I knew that probably wasn't very likely) It worked, Zach stopped coughing after about 10 min of being in the bathroom. A few minutes after that I took him back to bed, thinking how nice it would be to climb into bed and go to sleep. As I left his room relieved to be going to bed, what happens? No, no he didn't start coughing or Evan didn't wake up. Our blessed fire alarm goes off!!! Of all things to happen! So, of course everyone in the house is awake now and it is only midnight. All I could do was laugh! I just stood in the hallway and laughed. The boys were scared, Gabe was frustrated and Natalie was just happy to be awake in the middle of night.

Well, we finally all got to sleep. Yes, Nat stayed in our bed. So, no I didn't get a ton of sleep. But, hey, I got some. Needless to say Mom demanded that everyone go to the doctor bright and early the next day! They all got medicine and are now on the mend. My nights since then have been even more cherished. I hope the next time they let me call in sick though!

Sick little faces are just so sad looking, you feel so bad for them. And don't you love it when the kids are sick they sleep wherever. Hope you all weather the sick season better than we are!

American soldiers

2007-11-24T13:35:00.000-06:00

I got this website from a friend and it was very moving.
It sure made me stop and think about how blessed we are, because of those who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. And what an appropriate time to thank them and our Father in Heaven for what we have. Listen to this song all the way through and enjoy!
http://www.flashdemo.net/gallery/wake/index.htm

2007-11-19T11:38:00.000-06:00

Recently, Gabriel took part in the U.S. Marine Corps Mud Run. We just thought you might want to see what a real man looks like. As you can see, he had to take his shirt off in one of the pictures. Obviously, Trina is a lucky woman. Feel free to make it the wallpaper for your computers at home or work.

Evan's birthday

2007-11-18T13:15:00.000-06:00

Evan's birthday occured during our computer downfall, so none of his birthday stuff made it up. So, per his request here is Evan's party. His cake turned out way better looking, but I guess we all have our good and bad days. Thank goodness this age doesn't noticed most of our mistakes!

My sweet husband also had a great idea for a twist on musical chairs, which was a game Evan wanted to play. When you take a chair away no one gets out, you have to share a chair. Til in the end everyone is sitting on the same chair. The kids loved it. We also did a dinosaur stomp, you all know Evan's obsession with dinos. We got bubble wrap and the kids had to walk on a strip without popping any bubbles. After everyone had a turn we let them loose at popping them. It was in our kitchen and it was louder than fireworks, but the kids had a blast!

Party time

2007-11-18T12:53:00.000-06:00

Zach's party was yesterday, he turned 7 on the 7th. He had a blast! He wanted a transformer party and I actually had a lot of fun getting ready for the day. All the games were a blessing I found on executivehomemaker.com (a new fav website). And the cake, well it didn't turn out how I was hoping, but the kids thought it was cool so that is all that matters anyway!

Our Home

2007-10-17T08:59:00.000-05:00

Okay, we have been told frequently that our new home has not made it onto the blog.

Well here it is! Gabriel has really enjoyed having a yard as much as the kids! He has become our weed expert, he loves pulling weeds! And what a blessing that is for me!

2007-10-13T17:29:00.000-05:00

A few pictures from the pumpkin patch.
A great family time!

2007-10-13T17:23:00.000-05:00

She really wanted some help picking it up!!

Rethinking Goals

2007-10-13T16:57:00.000-05:00

Okay, so obviously my goal to post something every week didn't quite pan out. Shortly after I posted last our computer decided to have a major breakdown and completely shut down. We were out of touch with the world, as my husband would say, for about 3 weeks. And then when we finally did get it back I was so involved with Zach's class that I haven't had any time. So, to rethink my goal I better make it once a month and then if I do get more on you all can just think that I am supper mom!!
Not much has happened this last month. Evan has had his usual funny little moments. He just will say the funniest things. And then there is our Zach. He is turning into our little spiritual man. There have been a few times that mom has gotten lost and Zach will always say he has a great idea "say a prayer mom"! The other day they got locked in their play room and were trying to get my attention, I thought that they were only playing. They had been yelling and then it got quiet. I went to see what they were doing and the door was locked. Talk about feeling like an awful parent, locking your kids in their playroom!!! I opened the door to see three little kids sitting in front of the door praying. Evan said "Mom, we were locked and so we said a prayer and look how fast Jesus helped us!"
Today we went to a pumkim patch and had a blast! Natalie was so entranced with all of the pumpkins. She loved them! The boys liked running and all of the train and hayrides they had. There were little picture spots everywhere with little pumpkins and kid show characters. We couldn't stay as long as mom wanted to take tons of pictures. So, we will be going back and getting more pictures. They had so many cute picture spots!

2007-09-08T21:26:00.000-05:00

This was Natalie's first zoo trip. And she was so entranced with all of the animals. The boys really liked this big display of spiders. Creapy!!! We all had a great day at the zoo. I think the boys' favorite was watching the shark feeding!!

2007-09-08T21:18:00.000-05:00

Nat really enjoyed Evan's birthday cake. She liked his more than hers!

2007-09-08T20:52:00.000-05:00

This was our big guy's first day of school. He was so excited to ride the bus, he did not even look back once when that bus showed up. He loves school and really likes his teacher. The school is a really great one and we are so grateful we found it!