1st Place Moments

The Pine Wood Derby has never been something that I look forward to. Because it is a cub scout thing we have our boys choose their own design and help cut it, everything. It is suppose to be their car. However, due to the fact that neither one of us knows what we are doing our cars have never done very well in the races. This year we got help from someone else and worked really hard to make the car a winner! But to no avail. There were brothers who wiped everyone else out of the race. (Come to find out weeks after the race that they bought theirs already finished online!) Luckily our son has a good attitude and left the race disappointed in his car, but not depressed.

Then they announce at the next den meeting that at the next pack meeting there is going to be a cake decorating contest. The wheels in our head started turning. We could come back at them with an awesome cake! I was bound and determined to help my kid shine! This was all I thought about for weeks, planning the layout, finding all the right stuff and recruiting help where I was unsure. The day of the meeting this was all I worked on. It took my entire day! Lucky for me they were serving dinner at the pack meeting or my family would have gone to the soup kitchen that evening! This was our end result, the theme was the great outdoors.

Ev was so excited to take his cake in and let everyone see it. And I hoped that he would win. Well, the awards weren't the same as the Pine Wood Derby. No 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. It was most inspiring or best decorated prizes. Ev's got the best Cub Scout spirit award. I was a little disappointed for him. But hearing him talk about how we did it and what he helped with on the cake made me realize something. He didn't win a certain place with that cake. But doing this cake together gave him and me (and his siblings, we all helped) a fantastic time together. We still talk about making the people or the fire. That cake holds a lot of memories for each of us and that is far more important than a 1st place ribbon.

History has a way of repeating itself

Yes, I realize it has been a long while since I posted. You would think with all of our modern technology and conveniences it would be easier to have more time, but I don't. And this pregnancy really has wiped out my energy, not to mention preschool and 3 busy kids. But I really need to document this funny story, for history purposes.
When I was younger my family lived near some cows. They had a fenced area that was full of mud and other stuff (you know what I mean). Well, my brother got in there one day with some rain boots. It wasn't long before he was stuck. That muck just sucked onto that boot and wouldn't let go. My mother was able to get him out, but without the boot.

Well, 30 some years later it came back around. We have had a LOT of rain this past week and so our ground is very muddy. And lucky for us our kids have turned a part of our yard into a mud hole. No grass lives there, just mud. They even have a hole dug that they can sit in, they really like to be in dirt. Of course the rain filled the hole and made that area of our lawn absolutely terrible. Natalie had a friend over after the rain had passed and they were playing out back. It was so quiet, the boys were gone and I was really doing good on my organizing goals. Suddenly, the back door opened and a very frightened friend says, "Hurry, Natalie's foot is stuck in the mud and she can't get out!" Talk about a flashback in time.

I immediately thought how funny this moment was and wanted to get my camera. I started looking around for it and could not find it anywhere. Then her friend comes back and says, "Hurry, she's sinking deeper and she can't get out!" I stepped outside and told her she would be fine, I just wanted to grab my camera. Natalie looked at me, as she is tugging on her leg to pull it out. I could tell she didn't see my reason for wanting to capture this on film. She was starting to cry, so I went and helped her get out. As soon as she was unstuck she was fine and went on playing, muddy foot and all. She had on a pair of crocs, which have holes in them, so she had mud all over inside the shoe as well.

I wish I had gotten a picture of the moment, but at least I have written it down. She wasn't traumatized after the fact, at least I don't think so. Although her friend might be, thinking that her friend is sinking in quick sand and all her mom thinks about is finding a camera!
I wonder if this will repeat itself again for the next generation?

Naming a pet

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

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

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!!!

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

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

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

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.