The Walkers

Hello San Antonio

2011-03-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

My little sister has lived in Texas, Virginia, and now back in Texas for years now, and I have not had the chance to go and visit her sweet family once. Thankfully she has come back to Utah several times, and we get to see them then, but going to see her in her own home turf was something I have wanted to do for too long. So when she announced her third baby was on its way, and that her kind husband had to leave her for a week for his job, she was near tears. She was sick and miserable from her pregnancy, and tackling two darling little girls alone all week was enough excuse for me to put the bug out that I wanted to go and help.

Well "helping" turned out to be a darn good excuse for my cute mom to come and go with me, even arranging to fly to Vegas to pick up me and the two boys that I could take, and having a week of fun, good food, lots of needed cousin time for Kaylee and Max as well as Allie and Mitch, and seeing a little bit of Texas. And as an extra bonus, we even got my darling little brother Kyler to come and see us for a few of those days too!

We got to be there on Valentines Day, and the day was FULL of love. My nieces were so excited to give my boys "valentines" first thing in the morning, and for the first time ever that I know of, they were eating candy before the 8:00 hour. The kids got to make heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, graham cracker LOVE houses in the afternoon, and we ate a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner. (why don't we have a Papa Murphy's here??!!) The day could not have been more fun. We took a walk to a little park nearby their house, and we thoroughly enjoyed being together. It was such a perfect day, and although I would have loved being with my honey on the day of love, it was special to get to celebrate it with my sister and mom, both of who I look up to and love dearly...and four darling children who were excited to celebrate as much as they could. (aka: eating as much candy as they could stuff in their bellies without their moms caring!)
I took pictures of Kaylee and Max's finished houses, because you would NOT believe how much love and time they both put into their creations! I thought Jackson was the only perfectionist in my little family, but Max proved to be a close second. He took his time, as did Kaylee, and they were very proud of them all week long. Max desperately wanted to bring his home, until my smart sister asked if they could keep them at her house because she liked them so much, and that Max was welcome to come back and visit his house any time. (we're in trouble if he actually remembers that one day Aub!)
We left chilly weather in Las Vegas, so when we arrived to 70's in San Antonio, it was heaven! We took full advantage of walks, parks, and even the zoo. The weather was absolutely beautiful.
The day we picked to visit the zoo started out a lot chillier than we thought it was going to be, even raining for the first hour we were there. But as promised from the weatherman in San Antonio, the sun came out and shined and gave us a great day visiting the animals. Mitchell LOVED the zoo, which was no surprise since he's such an animal lover, but all the kids had a great time too.

There were too many pictures to choose from, and they were all my favorite. The beauiful Japanese garden area was outside the zoo and was amazing to walk through.

My sister had mistakenly told Max about this awesome craft that Kaylee loves to do the first day, and it nearly killed him that it was a few days later that they actually did it. The painted white pieces of bread with food coloring, and then toasted it and ate it. It made me wanna throw up myself, but Max absolutely loved it.

By the time my cute brother arrived, I think the kids were a little tired of entertaining themselves, definitely bored of us moms, and a very fun and energetic uncle was exactly what they needed! My poor brother. He was sweating within minutes of being attacked from all four of them. Thank goodness he's such a good sport.
We had a great day in downtown San Antonio, first going to a play based off the infamous book, "If You Give a Pig a Pancake." It was entertaining and all the kids enjoyed it. Mitch liked it for the most part too, unless they screamed loudly (mostly from excitement) and then he bawled. We visited another park, took a boat ride down the Riverwalk, and even walked through the Alamo. We didn't have more than one day downtown, but what we saw was amazing! I was shocked that all the kids lasted through all that, but they were great troopers. Note for the entire trip though: Mitch was the ONLY child who was willing to walk as much as we would let him! The rest of them fought over the stroller constantly, which was a bit painful in all aspects. Walking with a one year old that wants to go where he wants to go and at his own pace can be very waring on the nerves after awhile! But what a fun city! Wish we could have spent more time there, but it gives us more to look forward to on another trip.

We of course, HAD to eat Blue Belle ice cream every night we could. If you're not an ice cream lover, I'm pretty sure Blue Belle might change your mind. There's only one place here in Vegas that I know of that carries a few flavors, but in Texas, you have dozens of choices to pick from! It's good we were only there a week, because the two different flavors we picked were delish, and I would have went and picked out two more if I had the time. Some of us enjoyed every lick of it...literally.

This is the last picture that I have to post about the trip. If anyone knows our Mitchell, this is a popular position for his arm. He sucks on his arm as much as he needs, wants, doesn't need, yes, a little too much. Allie apparently thought it was funny or looked good or something. Funny girl.

Shoe Fettish

2011-03-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

Is it possible to have a shoe fettish when you're only 18 months? Because I'm pretty sure someone has one. This cute boy is often fishing everyones shoes out of our shoe basket downstairs, and seeing how far he can get in them before he falls on his face in his "clown looking" shoes. It continues to crack me up. You would think he would learn that it's not as fun wearing others shoes, because he really can't walk in them very well, but it doesn't seem to matter. When friends come over, they are not exempt to the shoe thief. In fact, they are probably more tempting because he hasn't had the opportunity to wear them yet. He loves, loves, loves shoes. His new found love for shoes would be "fip fops" as he calls them. He walks around in them, and points to them often, talking to his fip fops. The only problem with this little shoe fettish is we can't find our shoes half the time. And just because there is one in the basket doesn't mean the other one will be there to accompany it!

So inappropriate

2011-03-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

Yes, that is what this is. But it's also one of the funniest things that Max has done that had me almost peeing my pants.

Most of the things this boy does that he thinks is funny is mostly inappropriate, and I feel like I'm constantly reminding him to stop using "potty talk" or that what he's doing is not funny. But not this time.

I had bought him new underwear. Over the summer, he and Jackson had found a new love for the cartoon "Phineas and Ferb." Whatever. There are lots of other things more disturbing than this silly and funny cartoon. So I thought he would like if I bought him some Phineas and Ferb underwear.

I washed it, didn't pay much attention to what the underwear actually looked like, until my son came down in one of the pair, pulled down his pants and full on mooned me:

Like father, like son. But this one struck me in the funny bone for sure. Thank you Max and Perry the Platypus.

You know it's a good day when...

2011-03-09T16:24:00.000-08:00

Before I got caught up on all the blogging that I've been missing out on, I have to remember how lucky I am to have the boys (meaning ALL my boys!) that I do in my life. I have no pictures of this moment, which is probably more fitting. I didn't know we would be making a memory that I would want to remember so no camera was brought along. But you know when you just have a really great moment in life, and all of a sudden, it hits you how blessed and lucky you are to be a parent, and you wish you could freeze that "moment" for just a few seconds longer?

That's what I had last Saturday.

I know every mom is tired. Seriously, how we get through the days sometimes with so many things to remember and get done is award winning in my opinion. But for some reason, the last few months, I've been SOOOO tired. Tired to the point that I can fall asleep at any given moment in the afternoon, and go SO deep into sleep that I have NO idea what time of day it is, or even what day of the week we're on for that matter. It's not good. So when Russ had taken Jackson and Max to t-ball practice Saturday afternoon, and Mitch had gone down for a nap, I didn't hesitate in taking one of those naps myself. I briefly remember them coming home, getting Mitch up, and telling me they were going for a bike ride if I wanted to come. I was too delirious to actually get up, so off they went without me.

Awhile later, I was called to come to the school park, so I could be "another" person for their baseball game. I'll admit, that did not sound like fun to me. I was still groggy, lazy, and not interested. But my husband was being a good sport with my kids, and I was missing out. So I went.

I'm so glad I did. Although I played softball when I was younger, I'm definitely not that great at baseball. I love cheering for my boys at their games, and I feel like I know what to yell at them at times to "encourage them", (ha ha ha ha!) but actually getting dirty with them in their fun is not what I would have considered a good time. But it WAS. We had SO much fun being together as a family. Russ and I took turns pitching the ball to them, letting them hit, and run around the bases as far as they could get until we tagged them out. And then we took turns hitting to them, watching them play on defense, as they would try and catch the ball, stop the ball, or try and tag us out. It truly was a good time, and even better that it was just us having a good time together.

And what was Mitch doing during all this? He thought he was part of the game too, as he kept "decorating" third base with dirt by piling on as much as he could, or until Jackson or Max came over and swept it off. He was having a great time on his own, and had no clue that he almost was hit by the baseball several times.

I need to create more of these moments, and be there for my boys in all that is important to them, whether it seems silly to me or not.

Once upon a time...

2011-01-31T14:21:00.000-08:00

There were three litle Walker boys who all dearly loved each other, and loved doing things that they could all do together. Even if it's doing something that only the youngest little Walker boy could do well, which is watching Baby Einstein before bedtime....

This has become the new favorite thing for my boys to do with Mitchell before he goes to bed, or anytime really that I need their help entertaining him. Mitchell's room was the toy room before he came, and Russ had hung up an older tv on the wall in there - along with his play station so they could just watch movies in there occasionally. Well, Mitch has never been much of a tv watcher...UNTIL his brothers introduced him to the Elmo couch that can be placed on the floor, propped with pillows galore, his blanket, where he can suck on his wrist to his hearts desire, and drift off to Baby Einstein heaven. In fact, the other night, Russ and Jackson and Max were out later because of Jackson's basketball practice, and I was putting Mitchell to bed before they got home. I walked into his room, turned on his music that we play for him all night, put him in his bed and kissed him good night. He immediately burst into tears, crying "Ein-tein! Ein-tein!" Sure enough, that smart little stinker (once I lifted him out of his bed) went and dragged the Elmo couch to the spot that his brothers always put it, cried and reached for his pillow that is in his crib, and pulled his blanket through the slats of the crib...plopped himself down on the couch, and looked at me, pointing to the tv and said "Ein-tein!" What's a mom supposed to do, besides giggle, go grab my own blanket and pillow, and cuddle up next to him? No way would I pass up the chance of cuddling up next to my baby, even if it's only to watch a few minutes of Baby Einstein.

Never again...

2011-01-31T12:34:00.000-08:00

Is what my husband would say to this post. I on the other hand, would have labled it, "Pretty Pink Party!"

Let's back up a little bit. Our sweet friend, Ashley Reynolds quickly got pregnant after marrying our favorite single friend, Miles. And when they found out they were having a girl, I knew that we needed to throw her a fun shower. (selfishly, maybe I really wanted to actually see some PINK in my house - even for just a minute!) I'm not used to hosting parties, showers, or anything that includes more than a few people. I don't have the space for it in our little townhome, I don't have a bunch of fancy decorations or fun dishes that are excitig for me to pull out and use, and I tend to let things consume me more than is necessary...which is why my husband would say "never again." But I was excited to do it for Ash, and I was excited to host something at my own house, instead of being the one to always offer to help.

With only have a few mishaps during the shower, I tried to only focus on enjoying myself - which meant NOT being the stress case like I usually am, enjoying the women that came and supported her from my old ward that I don't get to see as often as I would like, getting to know her sweet mom and sisters that came from Utah to support her, and I was excited that she got some really fun things! I had TONS of support from the women that offered up help, and I have to give an extra big thank you to Lisa, Kelly, and Miranda, who all helped me enormously by donating their darling pink decor to make things looks just right for the shower and for all their help before. I am excited for Ash and Miles for their little princess to come soon!

Mouthy Mitch

2011-01-31T11:59:00.000-08:00

I love, love, love the age that Mitch is right now. He's funny, he's clever, he's figuring things out for himself, he's a sponge - and learns everything quicker than I'm ready to have him learn. And because he's the third boy around here, there's not a moment to waste being the small guy in the group. He wants to be a big boy just like his brothers. However, with this new found independence comes a LOT of attitude too. So as much as I love this age, it can also be extremely frustating. He wants to run away from us - which is usually into danger, his new favorite word is NO, and he knows that all he has to do to get attention is scream at the top of his lungs...good or bad. He picks up on little words all the time, but really, that's all it is. One word here or there. Well, not the other night. We had gone to Jackson's game, and they had passed out crackers at the end of the game, which of course our munch mouth threw a fit about getting as well. Luckily they had an extra one for him to take, and he was thrilled. We loaded into the car to go home, Mitch clutching his crackers, and Jackson went to reach for a cracker out of his bag, when all of a sudden - clear as day - Mitch screams, "Don't touch it!!" Lesson learned. Don't mess with a one year old's food.

And THIS is my life

2011-01-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

This post could not be titled anything else really. As I've been downloading pictures from my camera to my computer, these are the only fitting words that keep coming to mind. Anyone with all boys can probably totally relate. Would I change it if I could? I doubt it. Do I wish there were occasional days that could be filled with playing dress up, barbies, or painting fingernails? Maybe sometimes.

We are starting the year off with a bang. Did I not write in my last post that I wanted to simplify my life? Yes. So why is one boy playing soccer and one boy playing basketball, with their practices on the same night, and probably their games on the same day? The answer to that question is THAT'S the difference between dads and moms. While moms don't NEED their boys to play these things, I will not deny the proud moments that may come while watching that "little boy" grow...seeing the determination and pride in his eyes from accomplishing something that he wasn't sure he could do. I realized a long time ago, from watching my own father with his many boys, and my mom totally frazzled from trying to keep up with her nights, being filled with who was going to which practice at what time and where...that there was no changing the boy inside the father. And so I will be thankful that I also have a husband who is proud of his sons, who is encouraging them to be active and to just TRY, and who is 100% supportive of what (he!) thinks they will love eventually and be good at!

Max has been SO excited to play soccer since Russ mentioned it weeks ago, telling him he was going to be on (Jackson's friend) Courtney's team, which made him feel older. He was BEAMING when he got his soccer jersey, with WALKER across the back of it, and he was thrilled when Russ took him shopping for brand new cleats, shin guards, and soccer shorts because we have no idea where all of those items went that we did have from Jackson years ago. So why my sweet little five year old cries every time he has to go to practice, or play in his first game is beyond my desire to keep making him do so. But whatever. He actually really is coordinated enough to be good at it, and I hope that "encouraging" him to keep trying will not backfire on us.
I don't have many pictures yet, since he's only played in one game, but this is him playing goalie. He later told Russ and I that he did NOT want to play goalie anymore because it was "too boring. His team is too good and they were always at the other end of the field, so there was nothing to do..." Yes, that was unfortunately true.

Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, is the rule that Mitch lives by right now. What would life be without our very busy one year old? This was what happens when you think you're on top of your game in the morning! Jackson and Mitchell were both dressed and ready for the day by 7:30, I had told Max he could hop in the bath for a minute, and I was heading downstairs to make their breakfast. And then I hear, "Mom! Help! Oh no, Mitch!" And I run into the bathroom, just in time to see Mitch diving head first into the bath with his brother. I remember Max doing this when he was probably about this age, but the difference was I had told him he could take a bath, and had started up the water for him. I left to go grab something, came back, and there he was, fully clothed, taking the bath that I had promised. Mitch well understands "bath time," so this was no accident. He wanted to take a bath, and he didn't want to hear the words NO come out of his mom's mouth. So he took matters into his own hands.
And last, but certainly not least...a child after my own heart, probably a little more sad for him than he even knows at this point. Jackson is such a perfectionist, a pleaser, determined to succeed in everything that he can. He loves school and everything about school. Even his homework. He's smart. He has great teachers, and he does everything he can to make those teachers proud of him. So it comes as no surprise to Russ or me that he was one out of two children in his class to get straight A's thus far. They did a small awards ceremony with two of the first grade classes, and both of the teachers said such sweet things about him. I just hope and pray he can be easier on himself than I was/am on myself.
And this was the final touch this week to realizing that all THIS really is my life...the joke that every little boy will laugh at over and over again, no matter how many times it is told: Why did the pirates pee their pants?......Because they wanted to name their ship "Pirates of the Cari-peein!" Ahhh, yes. This is MY life. And I wouldn't want it any other way.

New Year, New Look, New Dedication

2011-01-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's that time again. As I've been blog hopping, (something I RARELY do) I've noticed that I'm not the only one that hasn't kept up with good intentions, such as blogging. I'll be honest. Blogging is for me, for my journal upkeep, since journal writing does not come naturally to me, and it's for my children to look back on and laugh at, and maybe realize why their mother was as crazy as she was while they were growing up. So I'm not offended if no one else reads what I have to write! I wish I was a great writer, an uplifting writer like a few of my friends that I look up to are...but bottom line is my blog is what it is, and I'm okay with that.

I decided to "give" Russ the only surprise for Christmas that I could, (if you know Russ at all, surprising him does NOT work, since whatever I would buy for this man, he would later inform me that he could have gotten the same thing for a MUCH cheaper price!) and update my blog from when I fell off the blogging world, and bite the bullet and print out the blurb books that I only have heard about from others who have done them. Only since it was a surprise, I couldn't do it online. So I worked for hours on end...the second Russ would walk out the door until the minute he would walk back in the door, there I was. On the computer, working so hard on catching up on all the things I had missed writing about. It wasn't a pretty few weeks. My poor children wondered why the computer had all of a sudden replaced the game time with them that I try to make during the day or reading them stories, why I wasn't out running our normal errands, why the house was a disaster and it wasn't bothering me, or why even fixing their food was such a distraction! Luckily they survived, and so did I. And even though the books that I printed for the last few years don't necessarily mean much to anyone else, I'm proud of them. Russ was sweet, shocked and so appreciative of my efforts, and probably a little relieved to find a reason for my ongoing lack of motherhood responsibilities. And my sweet Max finally was able to see that he really is a part of our family because he was in a REAL book, not just living here in our home. (Sad but true story: I was dedicated to scrap booking when Jackson was an only child, and I have his first year and a half well documented. So when his book is pulled out, and Max is going through it, the questions always remain the same, though he's been given the same response every time: "is this me? Is this one me? Am I in this picture? Where am I then? How come I'm not in here?") It's very sad, and when this happens, Russ gives me "the look." The one that says "hey, this is your job, not mine. You're responsible for him feeling left out of this family! Maybe you should do something about it!"

So here we go. A much better way to publish your writing...if it's done on a semi-regular basis, NOT months and years later. An effort that will hopefully not be left in vain again.

As a side note, if anyone does happen to glance at my blog and realize that I may actually post something once in awhile, and your blog is no longer linked to mine, please know that this is because you went private, and I no longer have access to your blog! So for all of you "private" people, link us back up again! Add my email address to your "approved viewers!"

Our New Years this year was actually not much different from any other night, which was okay with me. We have such a whirlwind December month, with not only Christmas - but getting to celebrate two birthdays as well, so a low-key New Years was perfect. We went to dinner with some of our friends, who helped us laugh over the past year a little bit, toasted this year OUT and welcomed in higher hopes for most of us in the upcoming new year, and then stopped in at a party thrown at the fantastic Jones' home for a bit. We were home in bed before midnight, with me watching the amazing fireweork show on the strip from my own bed, and my sweet husband snoring beside me. As uneventful as it may have seemed, it also helped me do my own reflecting on what is really important in my life RIGHT now, and what I need to focus on more, and what I need to do to simplify my life even more. And that's my New Years resolution in a nut shell. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Make life more meaningful with the ones I love. Show my children how much I love them, instead of just telling them. Make the most out of each day, and be more fogiving of myself when the most isn't what I wish it was sometimes. To do the things that I need to do everyday with a smile, and remember that I would pick this craziness over leaving my children in someone else's care if the choice had to be made. Silly, and maybe a little redundant, but that's okay. I've learned more about myself and who I am and what I want to become as a mother, a wife, and a friend in the past few years than I probably have in my whole life, and though not all lessons are the ones I would have chosen to have, I know that they have helped shape me and mold me into who I'm still becoming and hope to become. Oh, and one more resolution that's on my top of priorities? To kiss my husband more! To welcome him home, instead of anxiously looking at the clock, counting down the seconds until he comes home to help me out with all the craziness. I'm a lucky woman to have the men in my life that I do, (starting with my own father) that work hard to provide for their families, but who are also so involved in what is going on at home, who don't look at coming home and helping out as a chore. I don't take these dear men for granted! They are such good examples to me.

Anyway, here's the few pictures of New Years that I actually remembered to capture, as well as my cute boys waking up to the first and probably only snowfall that Las Vegas will have this year. Since we had just gone up to Utah, seeing the snow wasn't such a novelty to them, but you would have thought it was, by the way they were glued to the window, watching it come down. Too bad it melted quicker than they could go play in it, but it was still a beautiful white wonderland for a minute.

And finally...here's our ever-growing "baby", if you could call him that. He honestly keeps us laughing every minute of every day...except for when he doesn't because he's throwing those fun "2 year old" tantrums. (How is it that those happen at one again?!) But he really is so much fun, and we could snap pictures of his faces everyday, or video every little thing that he says right now, because he understands everything you tell him, and he tries repeating everything you say. His latest one right now is clenching his fists and his jaw and shaking when anyone says "cold." We had DeEtte and Alan Young here the other night, and I asked Mitch if he could say "baby Cole's name," and instead of trying to say it, he shook his fists and thought I was saying COLD again. What a nut!

Park City

2009-08-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

In July, Russ and I got to go up to Park City with a group of friends to the Whitings cabin WITHOUT kids. My parents were were so nice to take them for the few days we were up there and it worked out so nice for us! We've been there before, and it's one of the most beautiful "cabins" I've ever seen...there are so many things to do without even leaving! Even though I'm from that area, I couldn't believe how many things we did that I've never done or seen before!
The first day, we went to the Park City Olympian park, which was so cool to see. It was so fun to watch the different flips and things people could do on skis into the water! Everyone else went down the alpine slide and the zip line, but since I was so pregnant, I got to take pictures and laugh at everyone else doing it.

The boys of course had to "race" down the mountain. I think Russ was ahead for awhile, but Kenny rolled into a "ball" and killed everyone else at the end!

We also went to Salt Lake for a day. Our plan was to go to a session in the Salt Lake City temple because some of them had not been, and after getting all ready, making sure we were making the session we wanted, everyone with their recommends, this is what we find:
I'm pretty sure no one was prepared for such a blow, and we couldn't agree on what to do. (and when I say we couldn't agree, we REALLY couldn't agree!) Half of us wanted to go to another temple and still do a session, and the other half of us wanted to just go and enjoy the rest of our time in Salt Lake. After everyone had said their peace, and Spencer encouraged everyone to "hug it out," we decided to go walk around the temple grounds and go watch the Joseph Smith movie there, which was a decision not to be regretted. I'm pretty sure I've seen this movie before, but I don't think it matters how many times you've seen it. I still bawled through most of it, and my testimony of what a powerful man and prophet Joseph really was - was renewed and refreshed all over again. The temple grounds were beautiful as usual, and then we went and walked around the conference center. It was such a relaxing and perfect day!

We also spent an afternoon in my stomping grounds and went to the Homestead to swim in the "volcano." I haven't been there for years, and we had a good time swimming for about an hour and a half, playing games and laughing and hanging out.

We also went to Dairy Keen afterwards to eat, where Elder Holland happened to be eating as well with some of his grandkids. Russ and Jared went up and talked to him, and you could feel what a powerful and spiritual man he is just from his presence!
On the way back to Park City, a truck hauling a bunch of hay started losing some of his bails on the freeway. Luckily no one was right behind him and didn't get hurt, and even more lucky for him, we had a few carloads of very willing and kind men (and women!) to help him out with loading them back on his truck for him. I don't know why it was so funny but we couldn't help but take pictures of the event!

The rest of the week, much time was spent at the sand volleyball courts, where the competition of our cruise two years ago was remembered and felt all over again! The men played a lot of three-on-three in the same teams, and let us women join in their fun for a few games as well. Kenny was injured in one of the games and cut his knee open super bad and was bleeding everywhere, but he was a trooper, got bandaged up and kept going. My favorite memory of playing was when Spencer turned to me in the middle of one of the games and said, "I sweat Denett, if you are crowning right now, you are going to be in so much trouble." It was just too much fun not to participate and play with everyone!

Besides what I mentioned, my favorite memories of this week were making meals all together, (Bryan and Kendra rocked the house with their infamous CPK pizzas and their crepes! I'm pretty sure I gained 5 lbs just from eating those two things alone!) watching horrible movies all together, playing ping pong (around the world was too much fun!) and talking about our "favorite moments of the day." Our Joseph Smith discussion will always hold a special place in my heart...

July 4th fun in the sun!

2009-08-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

Our 4th of July was first filled with Jackson and I baking a bunch of festive treats, thanks to Jackson's determination and persistence. He had wanted to make a
4th of July craft, so we had gone to familyfun.com and found red, white, and blue popsicles that he was dying to make, as well as these cute candy hamburgers and hot dogs. It literally took hours to make the popsicles and another few hours to make the cupcakes with the hammies and dogs on top, but he was so excited...it was worth all the pain and effort. (?)

We went to (Grandma) Janice and Scott's home, Toni's parents, and had a bbq and swam all afternoon. The traditional toothpick game was of course played - with the children included this time, along with a "friendly" game of basketball.

We then did our own firework show in their cul-de-sac. I have to say, it wasn't as bright or loud as last years show at the Ahlanders, but it was still a great time, Kenny brought his infamous blow torch and the kids LOVED the sparklers. (of course) And the men gave their great annual rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" while the "finale" was going off. We all had a great time, and were wiped out by the end of the day!

My (never-ending) Family Reunion

2009-08-09T07:32:00.000-07:00

So...the month of May madness had ended with my parents a few of my siblings coming down here for Jackson's graduation. They left the next day for California, to meet my sister and her two girls, along with more of my brothers over the next few days. They were sweet and took my boys along with them to join in their fun, and Russ and I met up with them for a few days at Disneyland. Even though my boys are very spoiled and go to Disneyland more than they realize, it's always just as exciting as the first time. Jackson couldn't wait to go on a lot of the rides with the big boys and his Papa, and Max couldn't wait to be taken on the Matterhorn about 10 times, because he knew there would be uncles who were willing. It was fun to be there for my niece, Kaylee's (who was almost 3)first time, because she was SO excited to see EVERYTHING. It was a magical few days, and filled with more aunts, uncles, and cousins who came and met up with us too. We were a very big party to say the least!

We went back up to Utah about a week later to go and see my darling little brother, Trevor, who had come home from his mission in Japan. Trevor is such a sweetheart, and even though I was not wanting to drive in the car again for 6 hours, he was worth going to see.
Let me stop here and talk about our drive up to Utah first. This was something to be remembered for sure. My mom had expressed her desire to get a whole family picture over this period of time, because we haven't been ALL together for years now, and it's going to be another few years before it probably happens again. My brother Dustin was getting ready to drive back home that Sunday afternoon that we were driving up there, so we had purposely left early so we would have enough time for pictures once we got there. Emilee Carruth and her three girls had planned on driving up with us, which was great because it gave us both some company and made the trip a little more entertaining!
Well, the trip was going great, the kids were being exceptionally good, and we were feeling lucky and excited about things going so well and to get up there in good time. Alas, that came to a halt when we made our official stop for lunch just outside of Beaver. We had stopped at a little gas station with a Wendy's, that had benches outside for the kids to eat their lunch on. So we unloaded the kids, gotten out our lunches, and were sitting down to eat. I had purposely left the keys in the car just because I didn't want to keep track of them, or have the kids playing with them, when Emilee had gone to the car and asked me to unlock the car so she could get a diaper out for Brooklyn. I told her it wasn't locked, and that they keys were inside the car. She opened the passenger door, thought she hit the "unlock" button to unlock the back doors, which for some reason had locked, and then shut the door...to quickly find out she had locked the whole car back up. To save for a long (and party humerous) story, I'm just going to say that there wasn't a whole lot of options for us in Beaver to get back into our car. Our cell phones, our wallets, everything was in the car. Emilee had gone and found a nice couple to lend her their cell phone, for her to call AAA - to find out they wouldn't come to Beaver. (or maybe they would have, it would have taken them an extremely long time, I can't remember) So Em went into the gas station and asked if there was someone that would be willing to come out and unlock our car for us. There was indeed one man, who actually showed up within 15 minutes. That poor man came out, looked at the Sequoia he would be working on, and immediately expressed that Toyota's are the WORST cars to break into. He diligently worked on getting it unlocked for a good 45 minutes, with no success. Finally, a kind customer of Wendy's came by, asked if we needed any help, and was somehow able to pull our keys out, unlock our car, and have us on our way within about 15. I don't know if it was the combination of the two men working together, or but the sweet man who had originally come out to help was not going to give up. He must have said about 5 times, "What am I going to do? I certainly cannot leave two mothers out here with 5 children!" Oh yes, and as soon as we got back on the road, it DUMPED and POURED for a lot of the rest of our drive. We were so blessed that it hadn't done that while we were waiting, because the clouds definitely were threatening looking!
Anyway, we finally made it up to Salt Lake, to take about 5 minutes worth of family pictures before it POURED on us, and the rest of the week with my family was worth all the frustration to get there!
Just my bro's & sista's!

We had a busy week while we were there. We went on a beautiful (and little too long) hike to some falls up past Sundance, where my boys were lucky to have some uncles who were willing to carry them when they got tired. My mom had not realized it was 2 miles each way, and by the time we got back, we were getting rained on again. It was harder for me too, because the uphill of it made me start contracting, so it was an adventure for sure!

We also went on a picnic and then to the Planetarium for a show on the underworld, which my boys loved. We went to an indoor pool in Kamas, where all the kids had a blast with their aunts and uncles and their Papa, going down the waterslide over and over, swimming around the lazy river, and jumping off the diving boards. Jackson went off the high dive, which made me sick watching him, but he didn't bat an eye! And we had lots of bbq's on the patio, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and played a lot of games. Sunday was Trevor's "Welcome Home" and then we left. It was a lot of fun, and mostly relaxing, and SO nice to get out of the heat!

May Madness

2009-08-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

I don't know if we meant to do as many things in May as we ended up doing, but looking back, May was absolutely nuts. We had one thing after another and partied like rock stars all month long!

Even though I only have a few pictures of our family night of bowling with the Shumways, I had to include them because this was actually our second attempt at a fun family night together. We tried to go bowling with them before, and waited for over an hour for a lane, only to end up leaving frustrated, hungry, and the boys totally crying and upset. It wasn't pretty. But we didn't give up, and we did finally have that fun night with them, which is always a bonus because our boys get along so well and have so much fun together.

Russ and I also got to get away for a weekend of fun and friends in May, which was heavenly and much needed! We had found a great deal on a short cruise that left out of San Diego, which also worked out nicely for us, because Russ's parents had just returned from that same cruise (same ship!) a few days before us, and were willing to take the boys for us. (We are VERY lucky to have two sets of grandparents who are always so good to us and so happy to take our kids!) About a week before we left, we were unsure what was going to happen with our cruise, because the AWESOME swine flu had reared its ugly head in Mexico, which is where we were heading, but thankfully Carnival re-routed us, and we ended up going to Catalina Island instead. The weather was actually quite a bit chilly too for that time of year, but we still had a blast.
You always have to start a cruise by going to their "orientation" of what to do if there's a "Titanic" emergency...and we have to know how to put on our life jackets. Russ wanted to make sure Toni and Jared were going to be fine apparently...
Dinner is always one of my favorite times on the cruise. There's just something about getting dressed up - but not having to go far to eat great food, having so many different options of what you can eat - and not having to worry about the price of anything you order, and the laughter and memories that happen over dinner are priceless. (Thank you for embarrassing stories, and the never-to-be-forgotten legend of TUGGER!)

Catalina Island has changed a lot since I was there so many years ago, and although there wasn't great shopping or beautiful weather to lay out, we had more fun with the golf carts. We should have known what we were getting ourselves into with Russ, Jared, and Kenny all driving us around on the island, but it made for some very crazy (and scary!) races, two-wheeled turns, and close calls on the cliffs! (Okay, maybe Kelly and I were more paranoid than we needed to be, because we were all fine and in one piece in the end!)

Kareoke and dancing (but mostly kareoke!) were a big part of our nights, and the nicknames of Marchy and Sexual Chocolate were born. The DJ was head over heels for sweet Jared, who was more than entertaining for us all to watch, and quickly became a crowd favorite.

The last day the weather wasn't great again, so we decided to have our own scavenger hunt, which was a riot. It was guys against girls, and the competition was fierce. Even though the guys feel like they won, I'm pretty we deserved to win for being more creative.
What more can I write. We had a great time, we were lucky to go with great friends, and we took more than enough memories home for one weekend.

We also managed to go to Utah for my cousin's wedding in Salt Lake, which I somehow have no pictures of. I know it was a quick trip, a beautiful wedding, lots of family members were seen, and too much to fit in one weekend!

At the end of May, we went to St. George for a quick family getaway with the Jones family. Ben's parents have a second home there, which was more than enough room for our two families. The boys all have a great time together, and we managed to swim, play miniature golf, go on a couple hikes at Zions (along with the rest of the world!) eat a lot, swim again, and visit with my brother Kacey and his wife Nikki. It was a great trip, and too short as well!

Miniature golfing was VERY hot, as you can see from their red faces!

Swimming at Nikki's parents house...their water slide comes off their balcony and is VERY cool. Jackson and Jackson were more than stoked to go first, Mason and Max needed a little more encouraging, and then were the last to stop going down because they loved it so much. Even little Cooper went down with Ben! (not so in love with it!)

And finally, at the end of May, our little boy graduated from Ms. Heather's pre-school, and had a little graduation ceremony. I didn't think I would be as emotional as I was (who am I kidding?!) but I was very proud of him. He had read and passed off over 50 books and knows about 75 sight words, which I think is incredible. He's such a smart little man, and we are so proud of his accomplishments. My parents were able to come down for it, along with (Aunt) Bryna and (Uncle) Bryson, because the end of May madness just carried over into the start of our equally crazy and busy June!

Happy Easter!

2009-08-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

Easter this year was so much more fun since the kids are older, and we could really talk to them about the real meaning of Easter. Not to say that they weren't excited to do the other fun things that come along with Easter, but they were both really interested in understanding and learning what we were really celebrating. Children are so sensitive and pick up on so much more than we really think they will, and it was a sweet experience this year to talk to them about our Savior and the love that He has for each one of us to do what He did.

I can't believe that I didn't get one picture of them on Easter Sunday in their darling Easter outfits (shirts and ties) that I had bought for them, but I blame that on the sickness.

On the Saturday before Easter, we have had a tradition for the last few years to have an Easter egg hunt at the Hawkins house, which the kids always look forward to. I was relieved not to have to try and come up with doing a whole lot on my own because I still wasn't feeling good, and the kids were so excited because this is the first year that they both understand what to do in "The Hunt." It makes a lot more fun of a hunt when you're not trying to find the eggs for your kids!

We also colored eggs this year, which the kids LOVED, and wanted to do over and over again. I don't know if the hard boiled eggs were ever eaten, but they stayed in the fridge for a long time so they could still look at them!

Sunday morning, we (I mean the Easter Bunny) hides their Easter baskets - with a trail of raisins leading to them. (I know, it's my lame way of hoping they will eat the raisins that morning instead of all their candy! - Which Max DID.

My favorite Easter picture of all, because this is how they usually sleep!

Jackson's T-ball

2009-08-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

We had no idea how putting Jackson in t-ball this year was going to go, since he had never played before, and he really didn't love playing soccer the year before. But two of his buddies were going to play, so we decided to try it out, and he had a GREAT experience. He couldn't wait for practices, and the games were even better, and he grew so much during the season! The boys were so cute to watch, and he definitely wants to play again, so I'm happy he has something to look forward to that he loves. We took so many pictures over the season, it was hard to decide which ones to post.

A post dedicated to Max only!

2009-08-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

I could kick myself for not keeping up on blogging, if not for any other reason than to remember the FUNNY things that my kids say. This post is all about Max and the things that he has said over the last few months...he is hilarious and keeps us all laughing all the time!

**For some reason, I decided this pregnancy would be more fun if we didn't find out the sex of the baby, which I'm still convincing myself that it really is a good idea! Anyway, for the first ultrasound that they sent pictures home with me, my boys were not with me. So I took the pictures home, and was so excited to tell them all about the baby's features and different body parts. So I was showing them the baby's head, the arms, the legs, etc. I kind of expected one of them to say they couldn't see what I was showing them, but instead I got something totally different. Max took the pictures from me, and said quiety to Jackson, "Brother, why is our baby black? How come he has black skin?" I wanted to DIE. I laughed so hard, I was crying, because he wasn't worried about seeing the baby's different body parts, he was VERY concerned about how our baby was a different color! It was hard to explain that ultrasound pictures are ONLY black and white!

**Max: "Mom, I love the boat so much that I want to marry it! But I want to marry it in the temple!"

**We had been working with the boys on saying their prayers on their own. Jackson says the sweetest prayers, and we still have to help Max a little bit. So we usually prompt Max by saying things like "We are thankful for..." or "We ask thee to bless..." and then he will finish our sentences. One night, we had a very "proud" parent moment when we started him off by saying, "We are thankful for..." and he finishes our sentence with "SATAN." So we learned that night that we are thankful for Satan, because we wouldn't know the good from the evil if we weren't.

**Recently Russ was getting ready to take the boys out on the boat, and had asked Max if he wanted to go, to which he replied, "Um, let me think about that Dad." Then that same day, they were slowly going out to ski, when Max said to Russ, "Dad, once you pass those BOOBIES (meaning booies) can't you go fast?"

**We were at my parents ward one weekend, and were sitting in sacrament meeting, and the poor boy blessing the bread had to say the prayer over and over and over. It was probably 5 times for this poor boy, and we were feeling so bad for him. But not Max. After the final time of saying it, he exclaims loudly, "I HATE when they say the prayer SO many times!"

Happy New Year, 2009 consolidated!

2009-08-05T13:16:00.001-07:00

We found out right before Christmas that we were pregnant with #3, which is a big reason why blogging took such a back seat. I started getting my normal deathly sickness around 7 weeks, which lasted until about 20 something weeks. The boys were so excited when they found out, which has been a fun thing to go through with them. They always want to read out of the "pregnancy book" - which just tells them what is happening with the baby every week, and what is growing on the baby. They are so excited, it's hard not be excited because of them!

Anyway, this post will cover January through March. Since I am so far behind on blogging, these posts are going to have to be shorter so I actually get them done. So here goes a half-hearted effort in getting in the last eight months.

For New Years Eve this year, we went to the Ahlander's for a fun night of fondue and games. I'm pretty sure that I ate more that night to last for the next 3 months! (which was a good thing, since I didn't eat hardly at all for the next several weeks!) We ate yummy food, laughed a lot, and played some of the craziest games of Twister I have ever seen!

We had our second ER visit with Max in January, which is awesome to start the year off with an ER bang! We were at the Whitings to play games, and he was running and playing and slipped on their floor and cut his chin open. He was NOT like Jackson, who doesn't bat an eye in the ER, and flipped out at the sight of any nurser or doctor. But they didn't have to put stitches thank goodness...they just glued it shut!

Russ was so helpful when I was so sick the first few months, and the boys were pretty patient with me being so sick. I think Russ had gotten them ready for church in this picture, and had taken this picture. It makes me smile because all my boys were so good to me over this period of time!

The first of the year brings a lot of busy primary things, epecially for the scouts! We had both the Blue and Gold Banquet and Pinewood Derby back to back, which was a lot of work on my friend (and 2nd counselor) Kate espcially. Little to my knowledge, these were going to be two of the last things that we were going to do as a presidency, since we got released around Easter time. But I wanted to document how emotional this release was for me. We had grown so close as a presidency, and had gone through so many ups and downs together, I truly felt a Christ-like love for each of them. It was a nice time to be released on such a high time for all of us and because I was so sick with being pregnant, but it sure was hard for a long time. The primary children are just fun and so uncomplicated and have such a sweet spirit with them!

Jackson and Max wanted to make their own pinewood derby cars this year, and Russ and Zack were good sports to "help" make the kids cars for them to race after the boy scouts. Shockingly Max's car won overall, and he couldn't have been more excited. He loved his "bumblebee" car!

For my 30th birthday this year, my dear friends threw me the biggest surprise party and showed up a few nights before my actual birthday with a hummer-stretch limo. I was so SHOCKED and such a spoiled queen for the night! We got to drive down to the Vegas sign to take pictures (which was the first time I had ever been to the sign!), then down the strip, to end up at the Cheesecake Factory for yummy desserts. They gave me a darling diaper bag and some jewelry, and made me feel so special. I have seriously got the best friends in the world!

I don't know why I didn't get any pictures of my special date night with Russ, but he was not to be outdone either. He surprised me with dinner and then tickets to Phantom of the Opera. I know he doesn't love to do things like this, but knows that I do, and he was so sweet to surprise me and take me! I love my husband so much and am so lucky to be married to him. He's always trying to outdo himself and make my birthdays special!

In March, we also took the boys up to Utah to go thru the Draper Temple Open House. Russ wanted to take them so badly, and even though I didn't feel good, I wanted to take them as well. The temple is such a special place anyway, but it was so neat to get to take them through all the rooms and explain what happens in each one of them. Their favorite rooms were the baptistry and the celestial room, and they wanted to know everything about them. We had a great time!

Before the end of the year comes to a close...

2009-08-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

I must post some of my favorite work of my sister-in-laws from last year. She took some awesome family pictures, and I haven't gotten around to doing anything with them yet. (of course if I did anything with them now, they will soon be outdated!) But I definitely wanted to have them somewhere to be looked at, and to share her talent with anyone that will see it. Thanks again Aunt Paco! We can't wait for more to come at the next family gathering!

Jackson's Birthday, Christmas & more!

2009-08-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

What can I say, Christmas morning is just as magical for us as parents as it was when we were little! I love it, even if it is stressful and crazy and full of not knowing what to get for everyone....there's something about Christmas morning no matter where you are!

I'm pretty sure on Jackson's birthday is also when we went sledding. The kids had been wanting to go sledding forever, and my brothers were excited to take them, so we had a GREAT afternoon in the snow! It was so deep, and even though they kept getting stuck in it, they had a blast. My favorite thing was when they ALL piled on one tube and came down the mountain all together!

We ended up going to Utah this year for Christmas, which meant we got to be in Utah with all of our family for Jackson's birthday too! Jackson is always excited for his birthday because he says that he gets double the presents (which is what we will keep telling him for as long as we can!) but it's still a crazy day - being on Christmas eve. He had said he wanted a race track for his birthday or for Christmas, so we also decided to make him a cake to go along with that! (Thanks Marci for the idea! He loved it!)

If anyone knows Jackson, you know what a PEACE MAKER he is and how much he LOVES his younger brother more than anyone. He is always wanting to learn and has amazing concentration on everything that he does. He's already a perfectionist (sorry Jackson, an obnoxious quality that I passed down to you!) but he is determined to succeed in all that he does. What a sweet boy we have!

Max's Birthday!

2009-08-05T10:03:00.001-07:00

So before the year comes to a close, we always have two birthdays along with Christmas...which always equals to my stress level going up and MORE than enough excitement for one household to handle. I love that my little boys are so excited for their birthdays even though I always end up feeling bad for them because of all the chaos that I feel. For Max's birthday, he got to pick breakfast and wanted candles in his waffles. Then we took just a few friends and went to Chuck-E-Cheese for a few hours. It wasn't really planned, but my friends that were still in town were sweet to come and make it a special day for him. He had a GREAT time and loved his Christmas tree birthday cake.

Max is such a sweet boy, and my favorite thing about him is his sense of humor. You can't be around Max and not crack up just from his mannerisms and things that he says. He loves his older brother, and worships the ground he walks on, which I also find very sweet.

For the sake of posterity!

2009-08-05T08:51:00.001-07:00

Honestly, I don't expect anyone to read this very long and very overdue post. But since I have some motiviation to get last year's blog done and published, I need to finalize our 2008. I need to catch up on some great memories before they are vanished from my mind forever...which has probably already happened to some degree!

We did some really fun things at the end of December that was special for our family, and will hopefully become somewhat of a tradition in years to come. One of the things that we did was take the kids to Arizona to ride on the "Polar Express" train. My boys (like so many other kids) LOVE the Polar Express movie, and it plays at our house frequently during the Christmas months. So the Keslers and the Morgans, along with my brother, Dustin and his family (who lives in Arizona) agreed to go on this adventure with us, and the kids LOVED it. Marci, Michelle and I (okay, it was mostly Marci) had decided to make the kids all matching jammies and warm hats, and they turned out darling. They thought it was so cool that they got to ride the train in their jammies, and couldn't sit still for most of the train ride. We sang Christmas carols, we drank hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies, and got to see Santa, who gave each child their own jingle bell. Christmas magic was definitely in the air for the kids!

We also went to a bunch of sights in the Grand Canyon the next day, and saw some beautiful canyons, ruins, towers, etc. The Morgans stuck the day out with us, and I think the kids had a great time doing some short hiking, and seeing all that the canyons had to offer. I think some of the deep canyons scared the boys a little bit, but they were also very intruiged. I hope we get to go back and do more hiking with them when they get a little older, and don't give me such a heart attack when walking near the guarded fences.

We also went and saw Santa come and the "first snow fall" at Town Square this year. Jackson and Max were in awe of all the fake snow that started to fall, but we all great quickly tired of it and there was so much, it started to make us sick by the end of the night. We also went and saw the lights out at Ethel M's, which the kids always love doing. They were on a sugar high that night or something!

We also bought the ginger bread house kits this year, and the kids had a BLAST decorating their own houses and I'm sure will always ask each year to do these. I must say decorating the pre-made ones were much easier than doing them from scratch!

Then the REAL snow came

2008-12-19T19:39:00.000-08:00

There are no words for what happened here a few nights ago. Roads were crappy to drive on, kids were everywhere outside without much snow gear to use - desperately making snowmen, drivers weren't sure how to drive in all the snow, schools actually got a SNOW DAY cancellation, Las Vegas made national news, and we still have just enough left to laugh about it all! It was unbelievable.

For those of you that don't think it snows in Vegas...

2008-12-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

Here is some proof! It may not be sticking to the ground, but it started about 8:30 this morning and is still going. It's pretty and the kids think it's fake, but it seems like Christmas now!

Brotherly love

2008-12-13T22:47:00.000-08:00

Every now and then I actually get to dress my boys for church, do their hair, (without any whining mind you!) and witness how much they love each other. I couldn't resist last Sunday, and it was worth being the few minutes late that we were!

Christmas celebrations all around

2008-12-13T21:44:00.000-08:00

We are running ourselves ragged with all the fun Christmas festivities going on around here, but at least we are having fun doing it. The kids had a blast picking out the perfect Christmas tree with dad this year, and were very proud and excited to decorate it with all their ornaments they (we) have collected for them over the years. Max could not understand why he had less ornaments than Jackson, but I don't think he cared about that for long - once the train came out and he got to set it up with dad! It was a special night...

We also got to enjoy a night with our ward family last week. We got to go have dinner, and then enjoy a sweet program, put on by both children and adults. The music was beautiful and the children could not have been cuter, and the spirit was felt strongly. Thank you to everyone that helped put this on! Jackson LOVED being a shepherd with his good buddy, Luke, and Max was very excited to see his brother up on stage. (I didn't get pictures of this, I better do some blog hopping to see if I can steal a picture from one of them!)
Last Monday night for family home evening, we went down to Town Square again with some friends to go and let the kids have a personal visit with Santa. Although we don't play much into what Santa is going to bring them, I love to see their faces light up when they talk about him being magical and how they react when he talks to them. The Santa at Town Square did not disappoint. He had heard me gently coaxing Max to go and talk to him, since I was not sure it was goig to happen. We had seen Santa a few other times, and he wanted NOTHING to do with talking to him, and cried hysterically. But this time, he bravely went up to him, even sat on his lap, and talked to him for a few seconds. This Santa knew just what to say, and even called him by his name. Later that night, Max commented on how nice Santa was, and that he wasn't even scary, and that he knew his name. The house that they have built down there for Santa is too cute, and the kids all had a good time together.

The latest and maybe our greatest Christmas memory we got to make also happened this week. We were invited to go with a bunch of friends Tuesday night to go and Christmas carol/rock out on the Anderson Dairy hay ride on the strip. I wish I had my camera there that night, but we had forgotten it. Let me paint a picture. Lots of hay to sit on, hundreds of Christmas lights around the whole truck bed/guard gate, a huge sound system that boomed for miles, over 100 people squished together, laughing and having a great time. Everyone around me was cracking jokes about the unique "Las Vegas" version of Christmas caroling. (not quite the same as back in good ol' Heber. Half the night, we were rocking out to other "Ya'll ready for this..." followed by the bed jumping up and down from everyone dancing.) It was crazy. Anyway, we left Anderson Dairy, headed for Las Vegas Blvd. and were approaching Fremont Street, where we were all so excited to actually get to see people - and pass on our Christmas spirit...when outta nowhere...it happened. Yes. The unthinkable. The driver rounded the corner, (which to his credit was a very sharp and narrow corner, thanks to construction) and hit/scraped alongside an illegally parked taxicab. Thank goodness he wasn't in his car, but we all knew what happened as soon as it did. And what does 100 people do after something like this happens you ask? Nothing. We had to sit and wait for the police to come to file a report, paperwork shmaperwork...blah blah blah. Kids had to pee, babies were restless, kids and mommies are cold, dads are annoyed that they were roped into such nonsense. But you know what? Nothing could dampen the night for too long. The caroling and dancing still went on - all down the strip and back, and the kids still had the time of their lives. It just took us a bit longer to get back to Anderson Dairy to eat the doughnuts and drink the hot chocolate that was waiting there for us.

(Thank you Kendra for the few pictures you did take for us!) It was a night not to be forgotten, that's for sure.

A few missed pictures....

2008-12-13T21:27:00.000-08:00

I was going through all the pictures we've been taking lately, trying to figure out our new camera...and came across a few fun ones. I still have so much to learn about taking "the perfect pictures", but I did think there were a few worth sharing.
Our sweet cheese man!

How cute is my little sister??

A very handsome father I have too!

I LOVE this one of Aunt Paco and Max!

It will be sad when they are too old to bath together in Grammi's tub!

A Thankful Thanksgiving!

2008-12-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

I must be on a blogging roll of some sort...and it's not going to stop any time soon, since I promised my mother-in-law LOTS of pictures now that we have a fun new toy to play with and figure out! (Have we told you guys THANK YOU enough times?! We LOVE our early Christmas present! Thank you, thank you, thank you!)

We got to spend the Thanksgiving weekend in Eden, Utah, with Russ's family, where more memories were made and recorded. (one thing's for sure with Russ's family: NO memory will ever be forgotten with everyone's cameras going all the time, and Mark's video camera! It's great!)

Here are some of our favorite memories and pictures of Thanksgiving day: *clogging up the kitchen sink and having it torn apart a couple of times to try and fix it - to no avail, and having to wash all dishes in the laundry room. (oh, and getting to eat Thanksgiving dinner on paper plates to help out the dish load!) It was the easiest dish washing day after feeding 15+ people ever! *Allie's "incident" with the airplane in the field. *Eating the yummy pies before eating Thanksgiving dinner. *Discovering the potato SMASHER with Aunt Sparklie! *Olin spilling a big cup of Diet Coke ALL over the kitchen floor in the middle of the sink mess, and then running to Lora's arms for safety! *Russ and I discoving that Guitar Hero is actually kind of addicting, and now both want one! *The YUMMY food...thank you to everyone that cooked, it was delish! *The fun company we got to enjoy...it wouldn't have been the same without any one of you!

We also got to sneak in a short visit to the beautiful Salt Lake City temple to view the thousands of lights, and Jackson and Max LOVED seeing Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus floating in the water at the refelction pool...they thought that was really cool. No matter how many times you have seen Temple Square, it's still just as cool the 100th time or the 1st.

We are so thankful for our family members, on both sides, and we look forward to more great memories!

All I want for Christmas...

2008-12-03T19:05:00.000-08:00

I love the sweet moments you get to have with your children, and witness the proof that the simple things in life mean more to them than we could even imagine. Tonight I was busy sweeping up the floor, after putting up our REAL Christmas tree...needles are everywhere, and I'm trying to hurry before my piles of dirt get walked through. Max notices all of a sudden that I'm sweeping up the dirt with the small broom and dust pan, and says, "Mom! I want to do that! I want to help you!" He goes and grabs a second set that we have and starts sweeping away. And I say to him, "Max, I'm going to get you the same vaccuum sweeper as Grandma Nana has at her house so you can sweep our floors everyday." And he says, with excitement, "Sure mom! That would be awesome! Then I sweep the floors everyday!" So I decide to push it a little further and say to him, "Max, is it okay with you if Santa brings you only that for Christmas and nothing else? No toys? Just the vaccuum?" To which he replies again, without any hesitation, "Yeah! Sure mom! Sure!" How can that not melt a mom's heart? There you have it mom. Just buy us your same sweeper and we're all good. That's the gift that will keep on giving all year long.

Better late than never!

2008-12-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

Jackson, Max, and I sat around talking one morning about what we are thankful for. At first, they were a little confused at what being truly thankful meant, and what to be thankful for, but the more we talked, the more fun it got. I can't believe I almost forgot to blog it...but here's the list that we came up with this year!
A=all of our fun "Aunts" (they then listed ALL of them they could think of!)
B=the Beach
C=cousins & candy (for Max of course) & cars to play endlessly with brothers
D=our daddy(ies!) & Disneyland too (in that order!)
E=eggs for breakfast (their favorite is still sunny side u=p!)
F=our families, our friends, FOOD!
G=our sweet Grandmas - all of them!
H=home & hugs & health
I=ice cream
J=Jackson (he laughs, happy we are thankful for him!) & Jesus Christ
K=kisses & kids
L=LOVE & laughter
M=Max & Mom(s) & music
N=nieces & nephews & nice people
O=oatmeal
P=our two great Papas & our Prophet(s)
Q=quiet time! (ok, that's just me!)
R=roads to drive on
S=scriptures & sunshine
T=temples & teachers
U=underwear - that hopefully Max will be wearing soon! & fun uncles
V=the right to vote (Jackson & Max still ask who I voted for and why!)
W=walks outside & water to swim in
X=(common, what starts with x, really?)
Y=Yellowstone pool in the summer time!
Z=the zoo (to ride on the sky buckets)

Hiking the GRAND Canyon

2008-12-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

Since we were already in Arizona, and only less than an hour away from the Grand Canyon, we decided to go and do a little sight seeing and hiking for a few hours the next day. I haven't been to the Grand Canyon in YEARS, and could hardly remember much about it, and to try and explain the Grand Canyon to the kids is nearly impossible, so we were excited to show them.

The Morgans decided to be troopers and go on a little drive with us, where we ended up seeing some really cool things. We got to see some Indian ruins, which the kids loved seeing, and then we got to hike up a big dome building - and look at the canyon from 70 feet above. It was so neat to drive along the canyon and have our breath taken away every time from the amazing view. Max kept asking who made it that way, and Jackson would reply, "Jesus did Max. And then He rested on the 7th day." I love the sweet things that happen between siblings when they don't think anyone else is listening. And I'm happy to hear that some things we as parents teach them - they actually listen to and understand! I'm so thankful for my boys and the sweet things that come out of their mouths.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2008-12-02T14:21:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that we are now officially into December, and that we have birthdays and Christmas just around the corner. We have had a busy few weeks as usual, and have been able to do some really fun things that our family will remember for a long time.

A few weeks ago, the Morgans and the Keslers, along with my brother's family, decided to travel to the North Pole with us that started in Williams, AZ. We took the kids to ride the Polar Express, which was something that I thought would be a fun thing...but the kids thought it was just as magical as Disneyland. They were absolutely THRILLED with the matching jammies that (blessed) Marci and Michelle whipped out for all the kids a few days before, they could not wait to see the POLAR EXPRESS train - and check it out for themselves, and they really could not wait to see Santa on the train, and to receive the first gift of Christmas, just like on the movie. We even got to meet Mrs. Clause, and they were able to play with little trains too after rideing the big one. It was magical for them, from start to finish, and I'm glad we did it. (Now if I could just get them to understand that going on the train WAS their birthday parties this year...we would be in even better shape!)

We also had another taste of Christmas when we went down to Town Square one night, where Santa came in on a carriage, and they had a program for Christmas...followed by lighting the big Christmas tree and SNOW falling! And it didn't just fall for a minute...we were inhaling the stuff for awhile. The kids decided real snow was a lot cooler, even if it would have been A LOT colder!

I can't believe that it's now into December, and we are still able to wear short sleeves and shorts if we want...when are we going to start feeling like winter around here?! This 70 degree weather is great, but com'mon! I thought we might have some hope of winter a few weeks ago when it was actually really chilly, but we are back into warm again. It's crazy!
We also went for family home evening last week to the chocolate factory over in Henderson and looked at all the lights over there, and once again...it did not disappoint. Walking through the "gardens" of cactus and trees with lights all over them is fun, and the kids loved to pose in front of every "cool" light. We are definitely excited for the Christmas season to be here!

Gotta love our Max!

2008-11-14T08:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at Target, the lady that was checking us out was a little bit "dfferent" looking. She had on VERY thick eye liner, that covered almost her entire eye, and then came out quite a bit on the sides. A little different, yes. But leave it to my 2 year old to say, as we are walking away..."Mom, her eyes are yucky." Enough said. Sorry to the lady if she heard. A 2 year old never lies.

These could not be forgotten!

2008-11-14T07:09:00.000-08:00

Permission was granted, so a robbing of pictures was in order! My sister-in-law Kristin, who also happens to have a photography business, took some killer shots of Russ's family members over the birthday weekend, and I wanted to post them for others to enjoy. She truly has a talent, and was able to capture some pretty great moments. Here are some of my favs! I think I blogged about the Wii games played over the weekend. Who knew Grandma was such a competetive bowler!
Playing in Papa's park, one of the kids favorite things to do!
Kristin's kids with Aunt Sparklie and Noah!
Russ's sister, Suzanne's little ones.
One of my favorite faces to look at everyday!
The kids loved trying to play bocci ball with the adults at the beach.
My other two favorite faces to look at everyday!
Russ cousin, Michael, who everyone thinks look so much alike. I beg to differ!
Grammi and her siblings. She has some great family members!

Who knew this many people could fit into one house and have such a great time together!
It's already been said...the coolest and hippest 85 year old woman I know!
Love this one of Grammi and Papa!
A great picture of Russ and I chasing the boys!

Thanksgiving TURKEYS

2008-11-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

You know you are having a good time when there are 8 children, 2 enthusiastic moms, 2 crafts in mind, lots of frosting and candy, and scissors, and no one is screaming, throwing a fit, or behaving badly. Marci and I decided to brave the craziness of the situation, and do something fun with the kids this afternoon. My children LOVE making crafts, and were thrilled to do them with friends. Our first craft was making Indian Tepee's. (or if you are asking Max, Pee-pees!) This is what we were trying to make them look like:
And here are Jackson and Max's tepees:
Theirs defitely has a LOT more character and personality! (We were thinking they made really cute Christmas trees too, so we may be repeating this craft next month!) As messy and as non-transferable as they were, they kids sure had a good time frosting them and decorating them. They didn't know what tepee's even were, but I don't think it mattered!
The other craft was making turkeys out of their hands and feet which they thought was also great fun, and Jackson loved cutting and creating his to make it his own. Thanks Marci for making our afternoon a lot more fun!

What we have been up to!

2008-11-06T15:23:00.000-08:00

This may prove to be the longest post ever, and for all of you that keep telling me that I haven't updated my blog forever...you are going to be sorry! We have definitely not been bored lately, and have been blessed to be able to spend time with family and loved ones doing some fun things!
First things first...my family came into town a few weeks ago, and the kids were estatic to have them at their own home for a few days. We went hiking at Red Rock for one of the afternoons, and that was all the pictures I somehow got. But mom and dad, and Mahoney clan, we had a FANTASTIC few days with you, even if you play the wrong rules to Settlers. We missed you from the minute that you left, and Jackson and Max keep asking if you are coming back any time soon. So consider that another invitation!
We then got to head down to beautiful San Diego, to not only get to play with cousins all weekend, but to help celebrate Grandma Hats 85th birthday with her! It was a true surprise, since all of Liz's siblings and their children came in for it, as well as Russ's whole family, so it was a crazy and wonderful fun-filled weekend. We got to do a lot of fun things, but I think the boys' highlights of the trip was playing with cousins (old and young) at Papa's park, jumping on the tramp with way too many people at all times, sleeping in the motorhome with Grammi and Papa, going to the beach and making a bonfire, and swimming in the pool. Oh, and of course challenging Grandma Hats to bowling on the Wii and realizing that she's better than most of us! That is something Jackson still talks about to this day. We love you Grandma Hats!

Russ pulled an all-time infamous move, and found tickets to Universal Studios and to the Wild Animal Park for all four of us - all for $20. So even though we probably won't go back to either of these places any time soon, it was definitely worth the money that we put into it! The kids were semi-interested in the things at Universal Studios...it was a little disappinting that there wasn't more for them to do. Max FREAKED out when we were watching the fire demo, but they both loved seeing the characters (without long lines to meet them!) and they loved the ball area, where they could do whatever they wanted and not get into trouble.
We also spent a few hours at the Wild Animal Park, and the kids loved seeing the giraffes, the lions, the elephants, and the rhios. But there wasn't a whole lot of shows or anything else to do there, so we felt pretty good about the few hours that was spent there!

Last but not least...the Halloween of all Halloweens! We missed our ward's trunk or treat so we crashed another ward's where the stash of trash began. Then on Halloween day, a bunch of friends went to the Haunted Shark Reef where all kids got in free if they were dressed up, and got to trick or treat there AND see the fish! They had a BALL. That night we got together again with a bunch of friends and went trick or treating around their neighborhood. Jackson had decided at the last minute to change his mind on being a power ranger again, to being a member of the SWAT team, and he was a very handsome SWAT man. Max decided also at the last minute - to not be a Christmas present (which he had been saying for weeks he was going to be!) and he was a very cute Peter Pan. We had not yet carved pumpkins, so instead of making ourselves more crazy for more candy that would be donated to Russ's work (or the bishops office!) we went home and carved pumpkins finally. Halloween is a great holiday - and it's fun to have it here, and it's fun to have it over too.

Tagged...5 for 5 for Michelle!

2008-10-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

10 years ago...

*I had recently moved to Fort Collins, Colorado (those that know me know why I had to move away from my home town, and my sweet aunt and uncle had felt sorry for me!)
*I had just started my job at a place called Scuba Schools Intl. It was the most fun job ever, and allowed me to certify for nothing!
*I refused to date anyone...so group hang outs were as fun as I got.
*I was applying to colleges there, hoping to attend CSU, but then realized I would be paying double tuition, so that became out of the question...
*I was very lonely and very confused. I didn't know WHAT I was doing, or WHY. Thank goodness my 19th and 20th years only lasted as long as they did!

5 Things on Today's List (How about tomorrow, since it's 8:30 pm)
*Pick Jackson and Caroline up from school at noon
*Play volleyball and laugh with a few awesome women
*Do a Halloween craft with my kids, that I have been promising for days now
*Go to a baby shower
*Love my husband! He's been putting up with a lot from me lately!

5 Snacks
*This time of year - anything with pumpkin or caramel, I'm a sucker for!
*Nuts
*Fruit
*Beef Jerky if I have it
*Chips and Salsa

5 Things I would Do If I Was a Millionaire
I can't even begin to name just five things, because I know that I would be so eternally grateful to not have to worry about money again...so my answers would be nothing short of paying off all debts, saving for the future, helping out others, and buying the things that meet our needs and some of our desires. (Does anyone honestly think that Russ would still go out to dinner without a coupon - even if we were millionaires?!) We have had this conversation - we would live comfortably, but we would spend more money SEEING places, with and without our children!

5 Places I've Lived
*Heber City, UT
*Ephraim, UT
*Fort Collins, CO
*Northridge, CA
*Las Vegas, NV

5 Jobs I've Had
*The Heber City Railroad (aka Heber Creeper) -that was the longest summer of my life!
*Admin Assistant for several corps
*Dealer Sales Rep for Scuba Schools Intl.
*Education Assist. for the Utah College of Massage Therapy
*Massage Therapist

5 People I'm Tagging
I know I'm lame, but I finally sucked it up and did a tag, so I tag anyone that hasn't done one...they are always fun to read on everyone else's blogs!

A Weekend of Bliss!

2008-10-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

There are some vacations that are much needed that don't feel like a bunch of work and you actually come home feeling rejuvenated...and we were lucky enough to be a part of one last weekend! Russ had taken a few days off work, and we took the kids to Disneyland - which was magically decorated for Halloween. We ended up meeting up with the Roeth's for a little bit, which was icing in the cake for Jackson especially, and we had a great time as a family for the day. Max is getting more and more excited about rollar coasters - just like his brother did at his age, so the Matterhorn Bobsleds and the rollar coaster in Toon Town were just the perfect rides for his thirst for a thrill.

Then we drove to San Juan Capistrano, which was only about a 25 minute drive, where we met up with the Carruths, the Nielsens, and the Bowmans for a few days on the beach! Bill planned a birthday celebrations for Emilee at his grandparents beach house, and we were so excited to go and be a part of that. The beach house was literally right ON the beach...as soon as you walk out the back door, a breath taking view of the ocean awaits you, and there was sand-o-plenty to satisfy every child's wishes and desires for creating something, digging around, or just getting nice and dirty. We rode bikes up the coast, (pulling the children in bike trailers) stopped and got ice cream, took walks along the beach, chased the waves, (or ran away from the waves - depending on who you are talking about!) ocean kayaked, played and dug in the sand, read books and relaxed, hit golf balls, did some shopping, played games til we were all blue in the face, (I don't think Scattergories or Kings Queen and Peons will ever be looked at in the same way again!) played at the park, laughed a lot, enjoyed a great birthday dinner bbq - finished off with the most amazing chocolate cherry cakes (made by Emilee's sister-in-law) that I've ever tasted, learned how to boogie board, and cried when we left! It was nothing short of a great time, which was had by all, and the kids all played so sweetly together....and all went to bed sweetly together by 7:00!

Thanks again Bill and Emilee for a perfect weekend of great memories!

I think I'm blaming Emilee for this one!

2008-10-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

This morning, I was getting the kids breakfast, trying to be goofy and make the boys laugh...until the joke was on me. I asked the boys a bunch of questions, followed up with "Who loves mommy the most?!" Dead silence. Nothing. No response, not a giggle, not a murmer. Nothing. And then Jackson busts out laughing, and cracks, "AWK-WARD!!"

I wondered where on earth he got the word even from, until I was on the phone with Emilee this afternoon, and she said it JUST the way that he did! So if this is what he took away from listening to the adults over the weekend, I'll take it! I love that he not only SAID this word, but DEFINITELY knew just HOW and WHEN to use it!

A fun visit from Grammi and Papa

2008-10-08T21:10:00.000-07:00

The kids were spoiled rotten a few weeks ago when they had a 5 day visit with Grammi to themselves, followed by a weekend of fun with Papa too. Unfortunately, we kept forgetting our camera, so we only got shots of the last few things that we did! But they had a great time staying with Grammi at her "hotel", swimming in her pool, going out for dinners, doing things on the strip - (things that they have never even seen before!), and just being with their grandparents in Vegas. Thanks Grammi and Papa, the kids had a blast, and we were lucky to have you here!

Some things deserved to be remembered...

2008-10-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

It was just too quiet one afternoon, when friends had come for a visit...too quiet meaning, we knew something had to be up. So I walked upstairs, into darkness, due to all the doors being shut, opened up Jackson's door, and found this:

Followed by a screech from Jackson: "Mom! Get out! Jade and I are reading the kids the Book of Mormon!"
I guess having a day of tripumph and knowing you are getting through a little bit makes all the other bad days worth it!

I also had to put this picture into this post, because I have never seen my boys sleep like this ever, but it was too sweet not to snap - even if I was risking waking them up at 6:00 am!

Sweet Friends & Story Time

2008-09-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

Need I say more about the pictures?

The last two Wednesdays have been a day to look forward to...we stumbled across story time at the Town Square Mall in their park area, and it has become something that my kids ask daily for now. In their defense, I'm in love with the story time people just as much as they are! They are a very sweet adoptable gramma-and-grampa couple, she with a strong British accent, and he with the energy and enthusiasm of a 4 year old, and together, they are magical. They read them stories, he performs magic tricks, they have a bubble machine that blows hundreds of bubbles at one time, they give out prizes, they sing songs...if you live in Vegas, and haven't been there, you need to go check it out, just be prepared with swimming suits for the kids to go cool off in the water afterwards!

FHE Miniature Golfing

2008-09-20T20:46:00.000-07:00

My boys have become obsessed lately with golfing, which is much thanks to not only their dad, but also to their Papa Mark, who lets them hit (softer) golf balls around their front yard when they are visiting. And I have to say, they both hit the ball very well, and have pretty good swings. So when Russ passed Trafalga last weekend in Utah, Jackson was bound and determined to find somewhere down here to play that "fun golf." Luckily we had gone with some friends a few weeks ago and found an indoor mini golf place, so we knew where we could go. To say the least, the boys LOVED it, and haven't stopped talking about it since. They both hit the balls surprisingly well, and we didn't have one catastrophe during the whole 18 holes. Jackson's claim to fame that night: hitting the ball in the hole for the hole in one and free game on the 18th! You couldn't have wiped that smile off his face if you tried, and was proud that he beat his daddy on at least one hole that night!

FINALLY...we have a camera!

2008-09-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

There are some excuses that work when no pictures have been taken...and having no camera is definitely one of them. However, my determined husband (to find the best deal on what he is buying) finally came through, and we are taking pictures like crazy again. The boys are the most excited, because every time they would do something funny or cute the last few months, and yell, "take my picture!" all for me to say "I am! In my mind!" didn't fly very well. So we are very grateful for Russ who finally found one that suited his price, and the people at Target who probably ended up giving him what he wanted, because he doesn't let down very easy. (when you buy the demo, you can argue the price, right?!) So here we are, starting off with a bang!

Russ took the boys last weekend to Utah to "spend the weekend with my family, and let my parents enjoy their grandsons for a few days." Or, if we are being totally honest here...to attend the BYU/UCLA football game. Either way you look at it, it was a very quick trip, two very long drives, lots of fun for my boys and my family I think, and three tired boys by the end of it. My kids really missed going up to Utah and spending time with Papa in his garden this summer, so I'm glad they got to catch the end of it. We are still enjoying the veggies that he sent back with them, so thanks dad!
I'm pretty sure this was taken on the drive up there...they didn't get up there until probably 1:00 a.m.

And finally...we are proud to be blue fans!! I'm glad my husband's trip wasn't in vain! The game was definitely not a let down...

ER trip #4 for the year...

2008-09-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, tis true. We spent yet another night in the ER with Max (first time for Max) on Thursday night, wondering if we should go and perform our own surgery on him because we had to wait so long. Let's back up a bit...

Max had told me earlier in the day that he had shoved a peanut up his nose while we were out running some errands. Why this little two year old shoves up anything in such a weird hole is beyond me, but this is not the first time he has put things up his nostrils and had them stuck. Anyway, I will admit that I somewhat disregarded it, due to the fact that he kept sneezing and had sneezed a part of it out, and I couldn't see a thing up there when I looked, and he didn't seem like he was in any discomfort.

Later that afternoon, he woke up from his nap, crying and screaming and telling me his nose hurt. That's when I knew we were in some trouble. Russ came home from work, I was finishing up dinner to rush off to an enrichment that I was participating in, and I told Russ that maybe he would want to take him to the quick care and have them look at it. Again, nothing could really be seen all that well...but I didn't want to ignore the fact that Max was going a little nuts. (oh, am I funny?!)

Five hours later, a trip to the quick care and then to the ER, and at least 15 attempts and a few doctors later, the peanut was dislodged from way up high, and Max was able to stop screaming at the top of his lungs at the "mean men" to stop. I will admit that he seemed mostly fine while waiting, but when the doctors came around to even look up his nose, all heck broke loose, and Max was once again ballistic. It was a little tramautic, both for Russ and I and poor Jackson, who wouldn't leave his brother's side. I hope we have learned our lesson this time, and hopefully we won't be putting things up weird holes, and for all those who think we have some sort of "punch card" at the ER, or are getting some sort of discount for being their Most Valued Customers...we still have to pay at least $100 per visit just like everyone else!

Some things you need to remember...

2008-09-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I haven't kept up on the blogging very well lately, but since we still have no camera, I blame it mostly on that. However there are a few things that need to be remembered for later, and sometimes, being a parent is the best job in the world. The things you hear out of your children's mouths for example...

A few weeks ago, Russ had come home for lunch, and had gone over to the fridge, gotten out a carton of juice and swigged the last of it...meanwhile, I'm saying, "Russ...you should get a cup..." and before I can even say anything more, I hear Jackson pipe in, saying, "Yeah, dad, 'cause I'm watching you, and I will probably do whatever you do so you shouldn't do things like that." Um, no more words needed to be said after that reprimand!!

Tonight was a different story...one that I'm afraid of more to come! I had taken the boys to Golden Spoon for a treat (mostly for me!) while Russ was at Young Mens, and we were outside, enjoying our yogurt and the nice weather...when a very overweight man walked by us. (In Max's defense, of what is to come, this poor man looked extremely uncomfortable and was having a hard time even walking...) Anyway, the next thing out of my two year old's mouth is, "Mom, he wearing fat pants?" I still pray to the heavens that this man did not hear him, and I did my best to try and not make too big of deal out of it, (and not die of laughter at his innocence at the same time!) but what was I to say?!

Nothing gets better than this...

2008-07-24T19:33:00.000-07:00

I have no pictures to look at, (a big shout out goes to my sweet husband for busting the camera on his hike a few weekends ago while "sliding" down some rocks...) but I do need to record (for my own sake mostly!) the few Max moments we've had the last few days. First of all, any of you that know Max - the real Max - know he's sweet, sassy, crazy, and witty...especially now that he's actually learned to use words more. Anyway, we have been (unenthusiastically) trying to talk potty training with him for months now. Somedays are better than others, but more often than not...we end up frustrated and give up hope that we might have two potty goers. A few days ago, Jackson yelled that he had to go "pee" - if you will - and Max was quick to also chime in that he also had to go. I must have told him over and over that he was wearing a diaper, and that he could go in that, but was continually rebuked by my two year old, demanding that he "Go pee in potty!! So, with what little hope I could muster that he actually might surprise me THIS time, I took off his diaper, plopped him on top of the potty, and told him to point his little thing into the toilet bowl. I watched as his tummy went in and out, and knew he was really trying to focus hard this time and actually go. Afer what seemed like a few minutes, he got frustrated, hit his (what do I call his little boy part?!) and declared, "Go little guy, I said go!!" And then looked up with nothing but serious apologetic eyes and said, "I sorry mom. He not want to go right now." All I can say is I about died, and wanted to capture that moment forever and wanted to share it with everyone. I know everyone's kids say the darndest things, but this one has got to be one of favs so far...

I also have to record that we went over a huge hump today, it was a memorable day for sure! At the beginning of this summer, Max was PETRIFIED of the water, so swimming has been extremely frustrating most of the time. Most of you know that in Vegas, we LIVE in the water all summer long, so this has been one challenge I have not enjoyed at all! I have one fish that won't get out of the water most of the time, and one fish that would barely step foot into the very shallow parts of the water.

Anyway, I have been dilligently working with Max a little bit each time we have gone swimming, and although each time gets a little less worse, we had not made HUGE progress until the last few days...

I have been able to take him out into the water, and swim with him on my hands without him screaming bloody murder at me, which has been a huge improvement, and each time, I would end with putting him under the water and letting him "swim" to me for a few seconds. But TODAY people was the DAY! We went to the pool, and he finally got it. I don't know what clicked, but I now have two fish that love the water, and he finally got the breath holding, and that he has control over when he wants to come up for air if I'm with him, or if he's in very shallow parts. I kept having him swim to me, and each time he came up for air, he immediately kicked off me, and said "Again mom, again!" I am so proud of him, and so was Jackson, he was so excited for his little brother, and it was a happy moment for us all. His eyes have been bright red all night because of all the chlorine, but he has not even complained. Yay for Max, we are so proud of him!!

4th of July F-U-N

2008-07-06T21:43:00.000-07:00

There are few Fourth of July's that I can honestly say are very memorable since we have lived here in Vegas...I am always longing for those silly parades, ridiculously crazy ward breakfasts in the pavilions, bbq's at the parks, the awesome firework show that you can see even if you're not attending the Stadium of Fire, and just the beautiful weather that Utah has to offer around this time of year. I always get homesick for Utah in the summer, but especially around the fourth of July! However, I have to say that this Fourth of July will not be forgotten. We went to our friend's mom's house to swim for the afternoon, which was nothing short of great food, non-stop laughter and games (both with adults and for the kids!) great company, and non-stop fun. We had planned on swimming for a few hours, and didn't realize that we ended up staying the entire afternoon. Thank you Janice for hosting us all!

Later that night, the Ahlander's had decided to host a bunch of us families, and we again ate great food, enjoyed non-stop laughter, had awesome free entertainment, and saw by far the coolest home firework show I have ever seen. First off, I have to give some major kudos to Spencer Holt who had all 20+ kids (of ALL ages!) eating OUT of his hand in a matter of 2 seconds with whatever crazy Canadian tag game he was having them play...but the fun didn't stop there. We went to go and light what I thought was a normal firework show...until I saw Kenny lighting the kids' sparklers with what only can be described as a BLOW TORCH. To much surprise, we had no casualties with any of the kids and their sparklers.

I can't even begin to describe what happened next. Do we call this the O'Connell special? Everyone had brought a "few" fireworks to share, and I thought we would be there for an hour, watching the dads light them off one by one, until we were all done. I did NOT expect what we got...(and pictures do not do this justice!)
(this is the FIRST round of fireworks before going off...)

(this is the first round of fireworks going off - all at the same time!)
(and this is in between rounds, when some of the smoke had finally died down enough to see again!)
I'm still not sure who to blame for what happened that night, but there are seriously no words for what the husbands all did that night together. They somehow managed to light off ALL 20-30 fireworks at the same time, which produced more smoke that I have ever seen from any campfire, and the noise that came from it all had to have been heard in Pahrump...it was CRAZY. We quickly noticed that the kids were either 1: totally and utterly captivated or 2: so freaked out, they will not even want to touch another firework in their life! (and keep in mind, there were enough of these to go TWO rounds!) In someone else's words, "that firework show just ruined any other thing that you will try and do again on your own. Nothing will ever be able to top that."
Thank you to everyone that came that night to make it a most memorable one! Jared, your firework dance will not be forgotten, and neither will your "Star Spangled Banner" rendition that you, Russ, and Kenny attempted to sing amidst the show! (and how they all forgot the words to our National Anthem at the EXACT same place is still beyond me!)
And by the way, Trista, it was great having you here with us! We give you and Miles KUDOS for being troopers through everything! We had a great time with you guys!!

San Diego Sunshine!

2008-07-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

We had a VERY fun week this week, and it wasn't only because we got to celebrate our freedom and independence. Grammi had called and suggested that we get out of the Las Vegas heat (which was a good suggestion, since it's been over 110 everyday this week!) and come and visit her and Papa in San Diego. I think I purposely block out of my head how much my boys love it there, so that I don't wish that I lived there so much! San Diego is so beautiful and the weather is so perfect it's hard to want to come home. As usual, Grammi and Papa's house did not disappoint, and we got to go to the Del Mar Fair with the grandparents and Aunt Sparklie and Noah. The kids loved seeing the cow that Papa is going to buy (although Jackson did NOT want to hear WHY Papa is buying the cow!) and they loved getting to go on some of the carnival rides. Max especially got a kick out of going on the rides, and had a perma grin on his face most of the night. We will never forget Max going in the glass/plastic maze and SLAMMING head first into one of the walls...and still loving every minute of it!

We also got to spend an afternoon at Sea World, which convinced us all that we are lucky that Grammi and Papa live there, and we don't have to visit this place that much during the summer if we don't want to! It was crowded, but the kids still had a blast, and we ended up staying a lot longer than we thought we would. We saw the seal and otter show, which freaked Max out when they "blew up" the mime guy. He kept saying over and over, "guy okay?" (for those that haven't seen it, it's very funny - but not to the little ones that don't understand it's a dummy they blow up, not the real person!) They were intrigued by the cirque show, and they of course had a great time in the new kiddy area, where there are a few rides now - AND the Sesame Street characters come out for a visit!
It's almost embarrassing to say that we also took the kids to the zoo the next day for a few hours too, because we were only in San Diego for three days, but since Grammi was up for it, (and the boys were begging to go!) off we went! We were there long enough to see the polar bears, which are always the coolest part of the day. All three were out playing around, wrestling each other, and swimming right in front of us! We rode the sky buckets, looked at every snake imaginable, let the kids get a "foot massage" on the little machines, and went home to swim for the rest of the day. Jackson commented on every snake, and let me know which ones would bite us humans, and Max had a great time locating each one in their glass cages.

We also got to see Russ's best friend from high school and his darling wife and daughter, hang out with cousins that we haven't seen in a long time, go BACK to Sea World two nights in a row - just so the kids to see the awesome firework show...whew! (were we really only there three days???!!)

I have to say, even though we did a ton of fun things, and the kids had a blast, I think their most favorite part was just being able to spend time with Grammi and Papa, and hanging out at their house. The boys LOVED to hit the golf balls around Papa's front yard with him, they also loved swimming and hanging out in their pool. Thank you Grammi and Papa, we love you, and we are thankful to have you as part of our lives!

Calling all jewelry lovers!!

2008-06-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

This is not very much notice for those of you that live in Las Vegas, but hopefully any of you that care will see this and come! A mom of a good friend of mine makes some really beautiful jewelry, and is not going to be making it anymore...so it's all gotta go. We are hosting a party tonight at Michelle Kesler's home, in Yellowstone. Call me for the address, and it's an open house from 7-9:00 p.m. Come and get some great stuff for a great price!! I've posted a picture of the few things I have been able to get from her before...
Oh, and for any of you that would maybe like something and don't live here, I can always send you pictures, and you could order it too...I will ship it for free!

Credit to Kristin...

2008-06-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged much about Russ's family trip here to Vegas for 3 days, but that's because I have been waiting for his sister's pictures! Russ's whole family (minus Aunt Sparklie whom we missed!) came here to Vegas, which means: not enough adults (or too many parents - however you choose to look at it!), 7 children 4 years and under, lots of snacks to keep children happy, not enough naps, one boat trip to be remembered, dining out experiences not to be forgotten, and a lot of laughs and fun. We all are always so exhausted by the end of these reunions, but are always so quick to say yes to doing it again and again, because these are the things that the children will always remember. Thanks Walker family for such a fun few days! Can't wait to do it again!

I have to give credit where credit is due...I love and appreciate Kristin's talent and patience in taking priceless captions of the kids. I don't know how she does it, but I couldn't pick my favorites of Max, so I had to post them all! The rest of pictures are all so great too, and I appreciate your work Kris! Thanks again!

Summertime swimming!

2008-06-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

If you can't swim in the pool here in the summer, there's not much for you to do! I have to admit that if you can't get in touch with us during the days, it's almost always because we are at some pool, trying to keep cool! I don't know how we have all stayed un-burned, but we have somehow, and Jackson especially asks from the moment he gets up when we are hitting the water. I'm lucky that he has pretty much taught himself how to swim, and won't get out of the water for much. Max on the other hand, has to still be coaxed into the water, and it takes him a L-O-N-G time to be okay with whatever he wants to do. We are hoping to get him into some real swimming lessons, so he's not such a paranoid little boy about "falling to the bottom of the pool..." (not even sure why he would even think that!)

Anyway, we have gotten to visit some fun pools lately. Some of Russ's family, the Godderidges came into town for a night, and stayed at the JW Marriott, so we went and swam and ate with them for the night. Jackson and Max BASKED in the attention they got from not only Aunt Katherine and Uncle Scott, but especially from Natalie and Steven. It was so nice to see them and spend some time with them!

The other pictures are from one of our friends pool just a few blocks away from our house. We didn't even know backyards like this existed here in Vegas, and we certainly felt like we were in paradise a little bit. They have a fun water slide and waterfall and a diving board...all of which was utilized by everyone for most of the afternoon. Thanks Lunds for offering up your pool while you are out of town!! We were spoiled for getting to use it!

WHAT IS GOING ON??

2008-06-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

I know this may not seem like a big deal to many of you out there, but I'm starting to wonder if we have been cursed with something crazy...friends that have heard this already have said, "well, it's because you have boys..." or "what do you expect with two boys around?!" But I don't buy it! PLENTY of people have boys, my parents included, and I don't know of ANYONE else that has had to go to (think!) about three ER trips in one year due to HEAD injuries. So this is what happened yet again just two days ago...

I had taken dinner to a friend, who happens to be a nurse that is on bed rest due to early labor. Anyway, her phone rings, and she hands it to me and says "It's Russ." I answer it, and he tells me that he actually needs to talk to Brittany. This is our conversation... (me) "Why do you need to talk to Britt?" (Russ) "Um, because I need to ask her a question." (me) "What question do have to ask her that you can't ask me?!" (Russ) "I need to ask her if I need to take Max to the ER or not..." I won't finish writing what I said after that. You can imagine.

So there you have it. Russ and the boys were in the backyard, that is still in progress of being done, and Russ had set up a swing set that we had been given from a friend for the boys to play on. The swings are NOT steady, and I had already witnessed Jackson and his friend falling off of them, so I knew they weren't so safe for Max, but Russ did not. He had put Max on the swing, and Max had fallen off straight back, landed on a rock, which punctured a hole in the back of his head. It wasn't the prettiest sight, but after debating about it, taking him over to Brittany's for her to look at it, we decided not to attempt trip #3 to the ER, due to the fact that it really is a hole, and not a cut - that could be stitched up, like Jackson's both were. It does not however take any of the drama away from the "owie hurting" and the bleeding and the cleaning out, and the worry that it's infected, but we are hoping for the best.

Again, I ask you, what family has THREE head injuries in less than a year?! No one but the Walkers I suppose. Good thing Max is such a trooper, and hasn't lost his happy face at all...except when I clean his head, or take off band-aids that are seriously stuck in his hair!!

Not quite finished with our last entry...

2008-06-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

I am repenting, mostly to my husband. I didn't get to finish the last post that I had made, mostly just because I was so tired and didn't want to blog anymore, and also because I hadn't taken a picture of the "finished" result. The month of May didn't end with just a bunch of traveling and fun adventures...unfortunately and fortunately. When we returned home from our trip, (a trip to San Diego included - to get our boys from Russ's parents - THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH GRAMMI AND PAPA!!) Russ got on some sort of KICK to do something about everything that I have wanted done for the last weeks, months, years...I have to take a moment and brag about my husband for a minute, especially since I know he will be reading this sometime, and I know his feelings were secretly hurt a little bit that I had put nothing about what he has been up to for the last few weeks.

As he has put it, he did a couple months of work in a couple weeks, and I have to say, he is RIGHT. We got back from San Diego Sunday night late, and Monday (Memorial Day) he not only cleaned out and re-organized the entire garage, but he ripped apart my coat closet downstairs and built shelves in it, so that we have a little bit more room for food storage items. (I have VERY limited space in my kitchen and my pantry, as most of you know!) I was very impressed. Tuesday and Wednesday, he raked out all the rocks out of our backyard and is getting it ready to pour a patio - which will be a blessing to everyone in this family if we ever get something back there for the boys to run around in - no matter how small it may be! Thursday he ripped out all our flooring and baseboards downstairs, Friday we cleaned and swept and scraped and got the floor ready to be laid on Saturday.

Before I go any further with pictures, I have to also say this...we are SO blessed with so many good friends who are willing to be called on and give up their time and their familiy time on a Saturday to help us with our project. I could not believe how many men volunteered to come and help, though most of them had NO idea how to lay the flooring. THANK YOU to everyone that gave of their time, gave us tools to use, made us meals because my kitchen was torn up, took my kids, etc.!! I do not take any of it for granted, and I know Russ was very touched as well. We are so lucky to live in such a good area where there are friends who are so willing to help us out.

So there you have it...Heavenly Father's hand really was in all of this as well, because we have been wanting some of these things to happen for a long time now, and He has overseen and overwatched the entire process. We had been looking at flooring for months now, and how we ended up with what we did at the price we did at the right time is beyond me, but we have truly been blessed. Russ, when you read this, I hope you know that I am SO thankful for you and how hard you have worked. Russ always makes fun of me when I say things like, "well, my dad could do that if you need him to..." and I don't say those things to hurt his feelings, I just know that my dad is more than capable, and he is such a handy man! He's a builder, a fixer, etc, and I had NO idea that Russ really is as well. He is more than capable, and I am so proud to tell everyone that HE did it! He had great help, yes, but he was the one from start to finish in getting it all done. Thank you babe, I love you!!

oh yes, did I mention that while my downstairs was being done, we had up to seven children in one bedroom upstairs??!! Our upstairs had most of our furntiture from downstairs, so fitting us all into one room or the hallway was a little challenging!

What happened to the month of May?!

2008-06-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

Well, for anyone that has or hasn't talked to me, there is definitely good reason for the lack of updating the blog...sometimes I look at my life, and think there has definitely got to be reason for the madness, yet the madness doesn't seem to stop. We can't seem to slow down, and although I love being busy, I must say it makes for a slightly crazy mother. I must apologize to all those who have wondered if I'm really just a flake lately, or just a really uncaring friend. I don't know how my mother did it day in and day out with all of us children, and the chaos always swirling around her. Maybe she just accepted and embraced the craziness for what it was and knew that it was better than complaining about it. Let's start at the beginning shall we?

We left the day after Mother's Day, when we learned that my (step) grandfather, Melvin Carlile had passed away. We didn't have much time to think about the consequences that we would be paying later on for this, since being there for my grandma and paying tribute to Melvin seemed like such an obvious choice. Melvin was the only grandfather I had known and was always such a hoot to be around. We learned so much about him in the two hour funeral than we probably knew about him while he was with us, because his quiet sarcasm didn't seem to ever have the desire to share a whole lot with us. He was a dear person, and will be missed.

A few days after being in Heber, we all left and headed south to St. George for my brother, Kacey's wedding, for what we thought would be a little more relaxing vacation than anything else. We were proved to be wrong once again, when Jackson landed up in the hospital splitting his head open yet again, and receiving 10 stitches. (This was more devastating to him since ALL he had wanted to do for DAYS was go swimming with his aunts and uncles...poor guy.) He was brave, but I have to say this was a little more traumatic than the last time we landed up in ER with him!

The wedding itself was beautiful, Kacey and Nikki were extremely happy and glowed the entire day. They were married in the St. George temple, which was followed by a luncheon, which was followed by a reception. It was a L-O-N-G day, especially for the kids, and we were pooped by the end of it. The Anderson's were a very fun family, who have a yard that is straight out of a magazine, and it was a nice celebration for Kacey and Nikki. We wish them nothing but happiness!

Sunday morning after the wedding, Russ drove the boys to California, where they met their Papa Walker, who took them back to San Diego for the next four days, while Russ and I went on a four day hike to Havasupai Falls....

Let me start by saying that even while we were packing up for this trip on Sunday, I was NOT convinced that I really wanted to do this trip. I really consider myself a good sport, however, hiking 10 miles down into a canyon, packing everything that we need for the next few days, sleeping in a campground with no running water, no bathrooms, no ice/coolers, just to see a bunch of waterfalls did NOT sound all that appealing to me. My brother, Kyler had planned the trip, and my sister and her husband were going with us, and I really kept relying on the fact that my sister is pregnant, and would end up backint out and then I would not have to be the party pooper! But off we went, first thing Monday morning...all five of us, piled in Russ's car, trying our hardest to not be so exhausted from the last week we had just all had.

The 8 mile hike to the Indian village was pretty uneventful. It was a nice enough hike, not too hard, just long and a little boring. We made it down to the village, where we were happily greeted by a little convenience store that sold ice cream, which we all but inhaled. The two mile hike after that to the campground didn't seem so long after that!

All I can say about this place is that it is proof of a true and living God who creates some things for the sheer purpose of pleasing the eyes and leaving us as His children forever in His debt. This place is literally in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon, in the middle of desert, and is more beautiful than anything I have ever seen before. Within 4 miles of each other, stands four unique and breathtaking waterfalls... Each time you see one waterfall, you are thinking to yourself that there is nothing more beautiful than what you are witnessing right then in that moment. And yet, we would hike to next one, and were never ceased to be completely and utterly dumbfounded once again. The pictures will never do this place justice, and going once in your lifetime will not be enough. The hikes to some of the falls are crazy, gripping the rocks with your hands, and carefully placing your feet on just the right ridges, and thinking to yourself, "am I really doing this?!" but are so worth it when you get to see the falls. We had a BLAST hiking to the falls, playing in the water, jumping off the cliffs, and using the rope swings, but the turquoise color and the clearity of the water is something that I will always remember.

We also got to go hiking into some amazing caves and mines, which are not far away from the campground...hence, the headlight in one of the pictures. Truly, this was one of the most fun and amazing trips I have ever been on. Although next time, we will eat a little bit better, and not eat "crap out of a bag" which is what I learned to call the freeze dried food that we ate. We had so much fun all together, amd I'm excited to do it all again. Oh yes, and did I mention that the hottest it got was 108, and by the time we hiked back up to the top on the last day, it dropped clear down to 36, and was raining/hailing/snowing??!! No joke, it was the craziest thing ever...
Look, we are even still smiling after it was all over!

For anyone out there that loves a great shot...

2008-04-30T23:05:00.001-07:00

I am posting this on my blog, because there is no way I will remember to tell everyone, so if you're interested, call me and let me know. My sister-in-law from Montana is coming down here at the end of the month, and is VERY talented in the photography department. Many of you have asked me where we got our big family picture in our living room taken, and now she is bringing/offering her services to Las Vegas...SO...for anyone that has a want for a great photo shoot of any kind - whether it be your family, your child/children, etc. call me and let me know! She is going to be here Saturday, June 7, and is willing to do pictures for whomever. She will be here all weekend long, and doesn't fly out until Tuesday morning, so we have a few times to work with...her price is very reasonable, so please call me and get more details. For any of you that haven't had someone just take some candid pictures of your family or your children, you're missing out! These are the best ones, and by far my favorite, and she will capture every moment that you can imagine. She will edit the pictures on her own, make you a CD and even give you prints if you want, so there are some great options! You can link to her photography blog from mine, so check it out for yourself, Kristin's Photography Blog...

I swear I don't swear at my kids!

2008-04-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

There are two things to share tonight that are definitely blog worthy, but I know most of you out there are going to be thinking, "Uh huh, sure....we believe you Denett..." But it's true, I don't remember swearing at my kids. Anyway, with that being said, this video is for your appreciation only for what I go through on a daily basis with Max. For those that know and hear my little Max talk, it's amazing that we can even understand him sometimes. I told my sister this story, and what she said was DEAD on. Listening to your kids tell you something is like playing one crazy game of mad gab. Except sometimes, there are no winners, and there are no answer cheat sheets. Just one extremely frustrated little boy, and one laughing or frazzled momma (depends on the day!) So this is the story, for those who haven't heard it already.

Max came and got my hand a few days ago and said, "Get dressed momma." No problem, we walk into his room, and we start getting him undressed. And then the drama starts. For 5 straight minutes, all I keep hearing is "boa sh**!" out of his mouth over and over and over and over and over again. I KNOW what I keep hearing, but I KNOW there is NO way he is saying what I am hearing. And I couldn't keep from laughing - even though I had NO CLUE what he was saying. He finally got mad enough to climb up his dresser, only to pull out his BOAT SHIRT, which is what he had been screaming at me the whole time, if I would have only had a cheat sheet for that one...

My other story is about Jackson, and I don't know how these stories both happened to fall in the same week. But it too deserves a laugh that comes slightly out of embarrassment of where he could have heard it. (In my defense, I did ask him where he had heard it, and he could not remember!!) Anyway, this morning, we were reading scriptures in bed, when Max decided to go and grab his stuffed animal from his room to hear scriptures too. Jackson jumped up to go and "help" him, which Max did NOT want, and started melting down screaming, "Max do it, Max do it!!" The next thing I hear is Jackson screaming at the top of his lungs, "What the freaking hell??!!" at Max, and then comes into my room, shaking his head. Again, I repeat, I SWEAR I have not said this to my sweet son, but who knows...I'm sure I have blocked that one out of my memory if I did.

One thing after another!

2008-04-30T17:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize it's been a little longer than usual since my last entry (thank you to all those who tell me weekly/daily/hourly!) but it's not because we have had nothing going on and have nothing to share...exactly the opposite. We have had family in town, friends in town, and lots of fun offers along the way. So instead of breaking them up into all these different entries, we're going to try and get them all into one. Hopefully all that care about what is going on in these pictures will see what they wanted to see! My apologies, my life is not normally THIS crazy as it has been the past few weeks.

The first group of pictures are from my family coming down for a few days and visiting with us over conference weekend. Their visit was short and sweet, but we did get to take them on the Mountains Edge hike that the boys love, play at the park that they love, and just play games and enjoy their company. We love having family come and visit, especially when it's family that we don't see down here very often! Thanks mom and dad, it was fun having you guys here!

After they left, we got to meet Lesa and her kids, and Miranda and her kids at the Clark County fair in Logandale. We took Alisa and Layden with us, and I have to say - being from a small town - with a fair every year that I thought was great....the Clark County fair was AWESOME. We will go back every year. The kids absolutely LOVED it, and had such a great time looking and petting (most) of the animals, riding the train, playing with their friends, watching the mokey show, and of course, going on the fair rides. They actually had more than enough rides for them all to ride, and the kids would have stayed all night if we would have let them. Jackson and Maya were very cute and brave going on the big ferris wheel and on the big rocking boat - that goes high in the air - with their hands high up in the air and giggling non stop. It was a great fair, and we wished we could have spent more time there...for all of you local Las Vegas people, make the fair next year a must-go, because you will not be disappointed.

The next pictures are from the Princes' visit down here for a few days, and our very fast trip to Disneyland with them, and then camping with the Hulets and the Carruths. Trista brought just Bryns and Stock down here for a fast and fun getaway, and we hung out one day with the Ogdens at Toni's mom's house, swimming, eating, and having fun catching up. Then we bravely took all four kids by ourselves for a very fun and quick trip to Disneyland. The kids had a blast, as usual, but this trip was the first time that Max got to be just like his older brother, and got to share in Jackson's crazy obsession for rollar coasters...because Max was finally tall enough for the Mickey Mouse rollar coaster in Toon town. I didn't really think he was going to be tall enough, but he barely made it, and he had a PERMA grin on the entire 20 second ride. (not exaggerating on the 20 seconds, either!) He kept screaming, "Max tall enough!" over and over again, and was very excited. (We rode that dang ride with all four kids, who shared in his new found love for this ride probably 15 times....they LOVED IT.) Anyway, it was so fun to have Trista and her cute kids with us - even if it was for a few days, and we love you guys!

Now onto the camping...I'm still smiling over the fun we had with our friends in the "mountains" a week ago. We loaded the car for just one night, and had a big campfire with tin foil dinners, lots of marshmallows and gooey chocolate and the crackers...nothing was left out! I can't believe how good all of the kids were, and how excited they were helping with everything. Jackson, Max, and Lincoln couldn't "help" out enough with the fire, and I thought for sure one of them was going to have an accident, but they were all so fun and we had a blast. I'm still not sure what my favorite memories were....Kate's rendition of an actual "bathroom" in the wilderness because she doesn't believe in squatting, Zack coming back with a whole tree that I swear he must have chopped down himself in the 10 minutes he was gone (after Emilee and I had spent a half hour collecting firewood with the kids, and making what we THOUGHT was a pretty good pile), staying up until 1:00 in the morning playing ONE MORE game of Settlers, or the four wheeling trips the next morning, and shooting Zack's gun. It was all so fun, and we have to hand it to the Hulets...they DEFINITELY know how to go camping. Thanks guys, we MUST do it again!

I know a movie star!

2008-04-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

I have meant to post this all week long in hopes to spread the word...but hopefully word will get out anyway. A good friend of mine, Joel Scoville, went and tried out for the FOX show, "Don't Forget the Lyrics," and actually GOT ON, DID IT, and her show is AIRING tomorrow night at 9:00 pm for those that live here...(I'm guessing 8:00 pm for those that live in Utah?)

Anyway, we are all so excited to watch it tomorrow night with her, since NONE of us know how much money she won, or how far she got to go, but she's darling, and it will be a good show - even if you don't normally watch the show. One of her questions she was asked in one of the interviews was why they should pick her - or maybe why they should air the show - I'm not sure...but her response was "Because I will get EVERY Las Vegas MORMON to watch the show if you do!"

So...watch the show, TIVO the show, whatever ya gotta do...pass the word along! Our local gal is a movie star!! (oh she would shoot me right now if she read this!)

We love spring!

2008-04-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

We have been so lucky lately with such beautiful weather, and my kids are getting the itch for summer to get here already! I don't know how many times Jackson has asked me in his sweetest voice if we can go swimming yet or not, but we are definitely ready for those warmer days that we are used to! The boys have been having so much fun playing outside with friends, it's hard not to capture every moment of their excitement!

We also visited the Springs Preserve museum last week with a bunch of friends, and the kids LOVED it. I know some of you have been there already, and I have heard such great things about it, but I was not prepared for the kids to want to stay there all day long! We went inside and played outside as well, and I know they could have spent a lot more time in both...they had a GREAT time. If any of you live here and haven't been yet, GO!

Happy Birthday WEEK?!

2008-04-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know how I got to celebrate my birthday for 5 days now...but somehow, that's how it has felt, and I am such a lucky woman! My family and friends made sure that it was a day to be remembered and loved. First off, THANK YOU to everyone that called me that day, just to wish me a happy birthday...I was overwhelmed with phone calls from so many friends and family, and I appreciated it! One of my girlfriends had commented earlier that week something about how birthdays suck, but I disagree! Although I don't expect anything big or spectacular, I LOVE my birthday - just for that I get to talk to so many friends and family that I don't get to talk to very often.

The birthday celebration started on Thursday night, when a bunch of girlfriends from the ward all met at BJ's for some yummy dessets - to celebrate a couple of girls' birthdays with everyone, and it was a good time! The pazookies lived up to their claim to fame, and I'm pretty sure they kicked off my weight gain over the long weekend! THEY WERE YUMMY. We were happily SURPRISED from a visit from our bishop and counselor (over primary) to sing Happy Birthday to us, which was very sweet...(hey, singing in front of 30 women can be a little intimidating!) And then a group of us decided the night was still young, and went bowling at Red Rock. (oohhh....I am NOT 21 anymore, and realized that staying out so late does NOT pay off the next morning when you have to be MOM again!) But it was such a fun night, and thank you Kate for getting it all organized - and to everyone else that came out! I am blessed to have such fun girlfriends in my ward!

The boys were so excited it was my birthday, and Max kept saying "mommy princess today?" (Obviously, Russ had tried to grill it in his head earlier??!) And every time that Max was being sassy or mouthy, Jackson would remind him "Max, it's mommy's birthday today, remember? We have to be nice to her!" (hahaha) We spent the morning together playing at a park, then went to lunch and shopping with some friends across town. The night couldn't have ended better - with Russ and the boys taking me to Famous Dave's for a bbq dinner, where the boys CHOWED on ribs. Jackson still hasn't gotten to make me a cake for my birthday, since they gave me a free dessert that night, and he's so sweet in reminding me that we still need to do that.

Russ had gotten a sitter for Saturday afternoon/evening and surprised me by taking me to the temple and then to see Mamma Mia! I didn't remember to bring my camera that night, but I wish I would have, just to get his picture there - in the middle of all these crazy women, who were going NUTS dancing to the music and singing along. (Russ called them the menopausal women, but I didn't think it was very nice!) The musical was cute, and Russ never fails to surprise me with something fun for my birthday. He's the best!

I still got to celebrate until Tuesday, when a group of my girlfriends took me out again to dinner...the only thing I can say about this is that I am one lucky woman to be blessed with so many wonderful people in my life, and I do not take any of it for granted. I was brought to tears a few times during the night with so many thoughtful things that they did and said...thanks girls!

Better late than never...HaPpY EaStEr!!

2008-04-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

Although I have about 100 pictures to go through from the last few days of fun things that have gone on, I need to start with our Easter weekend - which was a memorable one...I don't know that it was the best one that we've had, but it's one to be remembered for sure! For those that weren't aware, Max had been diagnosed with pneumonia. (is that how you spell that???) He had been running a fever for a week, with no other symptoms, but then started the coughing...and Russ also had gotten it and Jackson had something else. (Jackson puking in the middle of Burlington Coat Factory - in a shoe box - was NOT one of our best moments)...So our weekend of eating SUGAR didn't quite happen, which was okay, because that helped us focus on what the holiday is supposed to be all about anyway. Jackson was VERY excited to be in primary that day, and inform EVERYONE there in the middle of the lesson about Jesus's resurrection and what that meant. -He's not one to speak up much in primary, so this was a shock to me! Sometimes they really do listen, and they even want to tell everyone else about it - and it's a good thing!

Anyway, we didn't get a Sunday Easter picture due to Max being a miserable mess, and having to go home right after the sacrament with Russ, but we did get a few of the more fun times of that weekend. Poor Max had to be coaxed and bribed to even do the few egg hunts that we did with friends. Jackson had a blast, of course, and keeps asking us - even now when we are going to do the "colored" eggs...(oh yeah, we never got to that either...maybe he will forget about it??)

Gotta Love It...

2008-03-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

I was going to blog this the other night, because it was such a fun night...but I didn't realize it would be the last fun night we would have for a little bit! Monday night, Jackson woke up with let's just say....um, some stomach issues - which ended up being an all-nighter event with more than a few accidents. (I'm talking about the runny poop accidents here...) Anyway, that went on all night long...by the next morning, we were all wiped out. So a few puking incidences later, and now Max with a high fever and a nasty cough, here we are...still hanging out in the comfort of our germ-infested home, wondering when we are actually going to be able to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather we are having down here!

Anyway, back to what I was going to blog about...every Monday night, WITHOUT fail, when Russ and I say something about family home evening, Jackson will blurt out, "I want to have FHE with the Shumways!" We have never had FHE with the Shumways, so I'm not sure what he always has in mind, but we finally had them over that night, and the boys were super happy and hyper together, and a good time was had by all. (And it sounds like it was the last good time any of us have had!) Sorry Janet! Russ did a great Easter lesson, the boys were able to be silly and maybe even learn something at the same time, and we loved the green dessert Janet brought over to share, since it was St. Patty's Day. (the cake was still good tasting, no matter what you say!)
By the way, Aaron...if you were not feeling great that night, you are a great faker! The kids kept talking about wresting Brother Shumway after you left!

I took this picture that same night, before all the other crap hit - because they boys were so cute and happy about their matching jammies that I found on sale at Children's Place for $3! I miss those sweet smiling faces!!

UNtalented Night...

2008-03-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

The night that we got home from Utah, our ward had a night of UN talents, and every presidency was asked to come up with something to perform...I am going to post this for my presidency - and for anyone else that was there to witness our "amazing" untalent, but this was so much funnier being the ones in it. Some of our Valiant girls were behind as our arms and hands, and Russ didn't even capture the really funny "lipstick" putting on during the performance, but it was still funny to watch it again...I think the Valiant girls had fun doing it with us too.

As long as the night was, it was a great time - lots of laughter, and a great idea by our activities committe. I took a lot of pictures that night, but for some reason, they didn't turn out very good. The only pictures that turned out I have posted. (The one taken of my "arms" - and what attempt she had made to put my lipstick on during the performance, and then my favorite one of our bishop, who was a candidate for our own American Idol, singing his heart and soul to "Book of Mormon Stories." Other highlights that will not be forgotten was our Relief Society presidency rapping and dancing - then bagpiping it, the swimming/dancing Olympic ladies, our bishopric acting as Sunbeams and "singing", the YM's American Idol - with Russ as Randy, Zach as Paula, and Rodney as Simon, Janet's story time - as well as her "other" performance...(not sure what to even call that one!!) and the high priests group song of old men. There were many other great performances, so way to go everyone that has so many untalents in our ward!

It's good to be with family, and it's good to be home!

2008-03-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

We just spent the past week with my family in Utah, and enjoyed mostly just them for a few days! I knew I wanted to go to Utah sometime this month, because my adored father had both knees replaced, and has been having a slower recovery than he would like, and has been in need of some cheering up...but then my sister ended up flying in as well, so we left in a hurry to go and spend some time with her and my very cute niece, Kaylee! As I think back on what we did, and what I would want to remember about this trip, there wasn't one outstanding thing that came to my mind. We did plenty of fun things as a family...going out to lunches, renting movies and staying up late, playing games for hours on end, going to story time at the library, etc. but the most fun thing was just enjoying their company, and not running around like a mad woman - trying to see everyone and do everything.

My favorite thing that Jackson keeps saying to people when they ask about his grandpa and how he's doing is this...."My grandpa's knees weren't working right, so they cut them up and now he can't walk very good." Um, that about sums it up, huh dad??? (is that what you pay for when you have your knees replaced???) My dad is a very special person to me and to my kids, and we were very sad to see him going a little slower than he would like to be going. However, his knees "not working" didn't stop him from playing their favorite game - "chase us" as they call it with them! He was slow, but he still scared the heck out of them anyway, and they loved every minute of it.

We did take an afternoon, and went to the the Gateway Discovery museum with some of our good friends, and had a great time with the kids there. Jackson had been there one other time, and all he could remember about it was how cool the ball thing was...and it still was just as cool, but there were so many more things that they had a great time with! We could have probably spent another 2 hours there with the older kids, but the younger ones had just about had it by the end of it. What a FUN time it is there! Thanks girls for all the fun!

More fun memories...

2008-03-03T15:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday we took advantage of what the Marriot time share had to offer that the Kesler's were staying at. The kids had a blast at the basketball court, the sand box, putt-putting around the little course, and sitting around the "magical" fire. (it was turned on by a switch, just like in a home!) Then we went and got sandwiches and ate a picnic at the park. It was colder that day, but they still had fun.

There's nothing better in the world than wearing your kids out so much, that they go RIGHT to sleep, without any arguments! They were so cute and wiped out, and were holding hands for part of their sleep...so cute!

Disneyland is the most magical place on earth...

2008-03-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

Seriously, it doesn't matter how many times we go there - with friends, with family, by ourselves....it's always a great time! Michelle and I took the kids down a day earlier than what was planned, and the husbands met up with us the next day. But we had SO much fun with the Keslers! And Friday afternoon, my cousin, Jessica met us there with her little girl, Charlotte...and the boys loved getting reaquainted with them too! You would think after so many trips to Disneyland, it would get old...but I think it just gets better and better. Some of our favorite memories of this trip:
1. Going to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe with the kids the first night. The kids were first TERRIFIED of the animals that come to "life" and make noises, but then learned how cool they were, and went around telling all of the animals good bye by the end of the night.
2. Sleeping in one hotel room with all four kids the first night! We didn't think it was that crazy of an idea until about 3 in the morning...when poor Gavin still hadn't really gotten into a good sleep, and was on alert for most of the night, when Max kept coughing. (Poor Michelle was up with her kids at 6:00 that morning, while mine slept through it all!) Still a good memory anyway...
3. Sydey's excitement for EVERYTHING. There was not one thing that girl wanted to miss out on, since it was her first real time there, and Jackson had told her everything that he was excited about...it was very cute! She wasn't afraid of anything, and even went on the Peter Pan ride with a nice lady and her daughter behind us in line, because they wouldn't let me take all 3 kids on the ride by myself. She could have cared less about who she rode with!
4. Sydney trying for a good 15 minutes to get Goofy's attention, and then finally getting it, and Goofy coming up to her and Jackson, taking each of their hands, and walked around the park with them for about 3 minutes, while Michelle and I were trying to get a hold of Max and Gavin, running after them, and trying to get pictures all at the same time. It was very funny, and priceless to watch their faces as they got to do this. (However, we were behind them most of the time, so getting a good picture of it did not happen!)
5. Jackson going on Tower of Terror, Matterhorn, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain three times each. I don't know how that all happened, but it did, and he was excited for most of the times, but he was a trooper the other times, for Sydney's sake I think. Their conversations were so cute after the ride. "Jackson, that was the best!" "I know Sydney! But I don't want to do it again right now..." The last few times we have been to Disneyland, he has not wanted to go on the Matterhorn, because of the scary abominable snowman...but we talked him into going on it this time. When we were done riding it, they took our car off the track for some reason, and had us wait there for about 10 minutes, and then let us ride it again for being patient. (They didn't know that this was not really appreciated by my son! He didn't really want to go again!) :)
6. Max and Jackson loving on little Charlotte. They both adored her and thought she was the cutest thing ever...which she is. Jackson kept saying, "I want to ride this with Jessica!" He adored Jess and Char, who were very kind to him in return.
7. Max "driving" the Autopia cars! When I say driving, I mean steering, but if you have been on this ride, you know that if you hit the sides, it really jerks you around, and the kids look like they are going to fall out. The last time we did this, Max was in the car with Russ, and kept yelling at him when Russ would try and take the wheel, saying "Max do it!" But this time, every time he would get crazy, and crash into the median cement, and it would jerk him around, he would look at me, and say, "Mom do it?" Very sweet and sincere.
8. Max giving Mickey Mouse a hug, and blowing him kisses. He was very excited to see Mickey, and was not the least bit scared of him. He LOVED Mickey, and loved having his Mickey t-shirt on to see him.
9. Riding the train after all the fun on the 2nd day, and the kids were in heaven, just watching all that there was to see. Jackson had asked if the dinosaurs were real and the train attendant overheard him, and said, "No, but they DO like the color pink, so anyone that is wearing that color better watch out!" (Of course I had on a pink sweatshirt, so Jackson kept his eyes on them and me the whole time during that part....) And when I wore the sweatshirt the next day, (not at Disneyland!) he informed me that I better be careful because dinosaurs like that color. I don't know if he was kidding or not, but it was funny.
10. Just being with my family and the Kesler's, and having a good time! We had such a fun trip with them, and will go back and do it again I'm sure. Thanks guys, it was great!

Painting fun & LOVE DAY!

2008-02-15T11:35:00.000-08:00

Let me start by saying that my boys are OBSESSED with anything that is messy and always seem to end up in disasters. (I know, what little boy isn't...) And one of my new years resolutions is to stop being such an anal mom - and let the boys have more fun doing things that I really hate them doing. (I don't remember my mom putting restrictions on us for the sake of not making a mess - what's wrong with me?!) BUT I have to say that painting for kids is so much better than I remember it being! We had just a few random things of paint that was probably given as a gift, and Jackson was in a whole different world for over 3 hours one day. -And then the littlest munchkin wanted a part of all the fun, and it was not as much fun for the mom anymore. (I left the room to go and wash out some of their clothes that had gotten attacked, and came back to Max DUMPING the whole thing of yellow paint into his "bowl" - (aka the carpet!) to use! But it was so much fun while they were being good. Max was just as into as Jackson, and they would have loved nothing more than to paint for the rest of the day.

The kids and I had a busy afternoon yesterday for LOVE day! We had such a good time going out to lunch with Russ, and then we went and cut hearts for an hour - to go and LOVE ATTACK his desk at work. (Jackson, by the way, CANNOT keep a secret to save his life! Good thing Russ was just clueless yesterday at lunch, because Jackson spilled the beans about 3 different times...he was so excited!) The kids drew on some of the hearts and put stickers on some of them, bought him his favorite treats, waited til he was gone....and then ATTACKED! The kids could not stop giggling over what we were doing, and any time I put a heart somewhere, they got upset and told me not to help them. They had a BLAST putting hearts everywhere and anywhere. Russ was very surprised, so say the least...

And finally, to end the night of Valentines, we went to a very fun and funny party thrown by some of my girlfriends in my ward. (Seriously, when your cheeks hurt that much from laughing, you know you've burned some calories, right?!) Anyway, Janet and Emilee threw a great LOVE party for us all, and we had good games to play, art was drawn, tender and hilarious moments were shared, and we even got to dance for a minute. It truly was a celebration of love for the night, and we had a great time....I know Janet has done these parties for several years, but last night had to be one of the funniest parties I have been to! Thanks Janet - it was great, and thanks everyone else for making it memorable!

It can be done!

2008-02-11T08:08:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to get this on here for months, but if it's not a picture, I'm not as quick to remember. I am so proud of Jackson for learning the first and second articles of faith, and I was actually shocked at how quickly he picked up on them. I remember my friend Kate telling me that they had taught Lincoln, who is Jackson's age - and that it was an easy thing for their age to memorize...and I also remember thinking, "whatever!" But it was....they really are sponges, and he is anxious to memorize more. Now if I could just get him to understand the importance of what he is saying....we'll be good!

Love is in the air!

2008-02-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

It's finally official! My little (and most SURE of himself!) brother, Kacey finally proposed to his girlfriend, Nikki yesterday, and are engaged to be married May 17th. (I don't say finally because they have dated forever, though...I say finally because we have all known for weeks now that he was going to pop the question!) He was quite the little romantic, and set her up with a horseback ride, with a picnic already set up, completed with Mormon champagne, a rose with the words engraved, "will you marry me?" on it, and everything a girl could want. We are so excited for them, and are happy to welcome her into our family!

Top 10 Reasons to LOVE my hunny!

2008-02-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

10. He has a FUNNY laugh...he loves to laugh, and WHEN you get him REALLY laughing, his laugh is contagious. Many of my friends comment on Russ's unique belly laugh, and I have to agree, it's definitely not a FAKE or POLITE laugh. I love it.
9. He is a hard worker and a hard player. I know he gets this from his dad, so it's true...they are dedicated to supporting those that they love, and love playing with their loved ones even more! He loves having a good time, and will go to extreme lengths (in some books!) to have a good time...
8. Life is NEVER boring when he's around. I know that I used to think that I would be known as the "fun" parent before I got married, because I thought my kids would love doing what I love to do! But since I have two boys that idolize their father, Russ is definitely the more likely one to add some sparks into their lives. But I feel the same way...Russ is always so fun, and we are never bored when he's here to play. We always have the best weekends together as a family!
7. He's a true kid at heart. I know that most women feel this way, but Russ will never age in my book. I've said before that he secretly loves going to Disneyland more than the boys, but it's also because of them that he loves going so much! He will always be up for an adventure, and "life getting in the way" is just not an option for him. He's a great playmate for the boys, and loves doing things on their level - or helping them get to "his" level - however you may look at it!
6. Russ is very thoughtful and very sensitive. Like I said before, he rarely gets very mad, and it takes a lot for him to yell. He is very easy going, and he is the first one to say to he's sorry when he's wrong. I am very lucky for that since I am so stubborn!
5. He is so good looking, and always has been. He's got BEATIFUL eyes, and BEATIFUL shaped legs. (sorry babe, I know you are going to die when you read this, but it's true!) I just think he's perfect.
4. His sisters call it cheap, but I have to admit, every one of our friends call Russ when they need a good deal. I LOVE that Russ can find the best deal on whatever he really wants. (or doesn't want in most cases - it was just too good of deal to pass up!) He cracks me up that he really does find the best deals on things, and that when we go to dinner - even with guests - it's almost always with a coupon of some sort. Call it cheap, but it saves us most of the time, since I am opposite of that.
3. He has a very strong testimony of the gospel, and is the rock of our family. He loves his calling as counselor in the Young Men's program, and the boys ADORE him, and I know he has helped their testimonies grow. He can be emotional about his testimony, which I love, and I love reading scriptures with him. He always tells me that I make things too hard, and I love that he always explains things more simplistic. His love for the Savior is contagious, and I know that I am lucky to be married to a worthy Priesthood holder that respects and honors his priesthood.
2. This one is one of the best things about him! And as all of my friends and family knows - RUSS IS THE BEST DAD IN THE WHOLE WORLD, and I'm not just saying that. He LOVES and ADORES his boys in every aspect, and I am so blessed that he WANTS to take his boys everywhere with him! My girlfriends laugh that he takes them so many places with him, and sometimes, it is me that needs a break - but most of the time, it's HIM that wants to take along his buddies. I know he would be a great dad to a girl one day, but there's definitely a special bond between him and his boys - maybe he's making up for not having a brother? I don't know, but his boys worship the ground he walks on.
1. I know it's cheesy, but I'm so glad he picked me! Without him, I would be lost, and I am so thankful that he finally decided I was good enough to marry! I love you Russ! Happy Valentines Day and happy LOVE MONTH!
This picture is definitely NOT my favorite, but he thinks it's great...he thinks it's funny when he grows out his mustache, because I tell him he looks kind of pedifile-ish! (sorry, nothing against mustaches!) This one isn't even the worst one, but I refuse to put on the one that he would like me to!

A Great Day!

2008-02-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

You know those days that you could repeat over and over, and hope they never end?! Well, those days do happen every once in awhile, and last Friday was one of them. We had started out the morning by going with the Keslers and the Morgans to the Luxor IMAX to watch a 3D show about sea monsters...(the kids started out a little shaky, but loved it by the end!) And then we got to go meet our very missed friends, Trista, Bryns, Stock, and Beckham for lunch and to the M&M factory! The day was BEAUTIFUL - something that it hasn't really been, and as we were walking along the strip to meet them, Jackson says to me, "Mom, where ARE we? This place is so cool! It's just like Disneyland!" (I guess we don't make it a point to venture out on the strip too often?!) The boys were so good, even though they were dead tired, and we had such a fun time vistiting with them. Thanks Trista and kids for a great afternoon, we miss and love you guys!!

Whiting's cabin...

2008-01-30T11:03:00.001-08:00

Thursday morning, Russ and I were in bed talking about whether or not we should leave for the weekend, since we had stake conference - (which only means no obligations for us!)...he had work to be done up in Cedar City, and some of our friends had invited us up to their cabin for the weekend, but we were both afraid of the roads getting up there, and whether or not it would be worth all the work in the end. But once we decided to stop thinking about it, and GO - it was definitely all worth it. We stopped by and surprised the Jensen's, and the let kids get re-aquaited for a little bit, which was an extra bonus.

We got to just hang out, and relax, and enjoy how beautiful the winter can be when you don't have to be in it everyday!

We also go to go to the BYU basketball game, which makes an extra happy husband. My parents have season tickets to they also went with all of us, and we were able to spend some time with my family, as well as the Houghs! For such a short amount of time, we got lucky and got to see friends and family, without feeling so overwhelmed and stressed out!

2008-01-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

The kids had so much fun in the snow, which was also a surprise to me. They have never really played much in it, and when we decided to take them sledding, they had a ball!! (Thank you Lesa for letting us borrow the coolest sled ever!! Max wouldn't have been the same without it!) But even after they were done sledding, they still wanted to have snowball fights, run around in it, and just have fun. We had such a good time, and nobody was too cold, which was another surprise!

2008-01-30T10:45:00.000-08:00

The kids loved going to Gramma Nana's and "shoveling" her sidewalk for her...we wished that we could have stayed longer! They both screamed for awhile when we made them leave my parents house...silly me thought they would be relieved to go back to the "warmth" of home!

Another Jackson moment...

2008-01-21T21:33:00.000-08:00

For the last few weeks, we have been telling the boys that we will not be bringing so many snacks to church anymore, because we moved into a brand new stake center, and the bishop has asked us to try and teach our children reverence and respect for a beautiful new building. (strongly meaning stop feeding your children through sacrament meeting!) So yesterday, I told Jackson that he was only allowed one pack of fruit snacks - something that could not be so crumbly and messy on the ground! A few minutes later, I see all his snacks laid on the carpet - under the bench, and he's "sneaking" them one by one under the bench as well. I told him to get up and to get the snacks off the dirty floor, and he looks at me, confused, and says, "but mom, I don't want Bishop Waldron to see me eating snacks!"....ahhhhh, the things that we learn from our children. I learned my lesson. Don't tell a child what the rule is, and then "assist" them in bending the rule. Dumb mom, dumb.

We want the "UMWAYS!!"

2008-01-18T22:26:00.000-08:00

I have to blog this, because I think it's so funny...I stole this picture off my friend, Janet's blog, because I haven't had a chance to take any pictures of these cute boys yet, but this has become the family joke lately. My boys have NEVER asked to play with friends more than once, and rarely even ask to have specific friends over. They are usually just happy playing with each other, which I think is sweet. But lately, this funny obsession has crept in, and every hour of the day, Jackson is asking to play with the Shumways, or if he can go over to the Shumways, or when we are having them over, etc. He shrieks with excitement when he sees them at church, and asks Max all the time if he loves "Brother and Sister Shumway," which I think is funny, because we don't call them that - but they used to be Max's nursery leaders, so he obviously heard it at church. Anyway, they absolutely adore these boys, and I think it's sweet and cute. Aaron and Janet, I repeat myself again YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO MOVE OUT OF THIS AREA!

Grammi & Papa's weekend!

2008-01-18T21:57:00.000-08:00

The kids were so excited to have Grammi and Papa all to themselves last weekend, and with everything else that has been going on, I forgot to blog this! Grammi was even laughing when I was taking pictures of the weekend, saying, "Now you will have something to blog!" -It's sad but true....I don't get around to blogging unless something out of the ordinary has happened...but anyway. The boys were spoiled and got to go to Circus Circus, which I don't think Russ or Papa will be repeating for a very long time if they have a choice! (No, they were both really good sports, but after about an hour and a half, they both looked a little green in the face, and were reminded why we don't love to ride on "circus" type rides very much. Jackson and Max had a blast, though, so that's what counts, right?

Max also had a blast with Papa building with their new blocks, while Jackson loved to do what a four-year old does best, which is wrecking the masterpiece that his younger brother had tried so hard to create. What would we ever do without visits from our grandparents to spoil us rotten???

Aunt Sparklie's visit!

2008-01-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun visit with Russ's youngest sister, Allie, who came to visit for the last 4 days. We got to go to the UNLV/BYU basketball game, (which was not a pretty ending!!) see all the fishes and sharks at the Shark Reef with Grammi, (who came and stayed for a day) enjoy each other's company for lunches, and find some rare things at a few stops at Ross! The boys loved Allie's attention, and took more than their share of it while they could...as soon as we dropped her off today, the first thing Jackson said was, "Mom, why did Allie have to leave already?" - meanwhile, Max was whining, "AAAAEEEE!!! AAAAAEEEE!" I think he thought I had "left" her there - or forgotten her, and was upset that I wasn't turning around. We had a great time Al, and we love you! Thanks for spending a few days with us and for all your help!

Jackson's moments...again

2008-01-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

I have to write them down somewhere, so here's where they are going. Jackson has said some really funny things lately, so I need to record them. The other day, we were driving in the car, and Jackson asked me if he could go to "Old Men's with daddy tonight..." I was so confused, and couldn't figure out what he was talking about, until he said, "I want to go to Chuck-E-Cheese with dad tonight!" Ah-ha! He meant YOUNG MEN'S...not OLD men's, but I guess they seem really old to him??!!

The next one was about his birthday...he has now figured out this year that having a birthday at Christmas time really isn't all it was cracked up to be, and asked me if his birthday was always going to be the same day. When I replied yes, he said, "But I don't want it to be that day anymore! I want a birthday in Septem-brary!" Again, don't have a clue who's birthday is in September - or Septembrary for that matter, but I thought it was awfully cute. He keeps us on our toes all the time, asking questions that I just don't have the answers for.

Tis the new year...

2008-01-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

I don't know where the time goes, but blogging can get so behind in the shuffle of all the excitment....we have had such a busy start to our new year! Between figuring out a new year in primary, sharing time, my boys, playing volleyball, time with my hubby....there's not a lot left. But we are all healthy and happy, and that's the most important. I missed posting pictures of our new year, so here it goes....
We had quite the memorable night - to say the least! Russ's big work contact put on quite the show at the Rio, and his company paid for us to go - as well as a couple of our friends! ($1,000 a plate is not a cheap thing! We were so lucky!) So Chris and Amber Whiting came with us, who sure made the night a lot more fun and a lot more entertaining! We got all dressed up in formals, and danced and ate the night away. I think we had over 5 rounds of appetizers, a couple rounds of main courses, and a couple rounds of desserts...it was yummy and sickening all at the same time. It was something that we probably won't get to ever do again, and something that should be done at least once in your lifetime! Like I said, a memorable experience for sure...