New Earings!

Morgan was so excited. She's now had her newly pierced earrings in for 6

months, and got to change them out to a new pair today. She

did so good, letting me change them. She has been awesome for the

last 6 weeks, making sure to "twirl" her earrings several times a day.

These are as 'dangly' as daddy said we can get.

(for the time being anyways)

Trip to "Heaven's Hay Fields"

What can I say about this picture?

This is our Chandler. Pure and simple. I don't

usually have a lot of pictures of Chandler on my blog for

the simple reason, that he's usually got us head down, doing something

in nature. Hunting for bugs, fishing in the water, and building

snowballs, he's a busy little guy, and I love him a lot!

Monday was his 2nd grade field trip to Heaven's Hay fields. Matt went

along, and was great about taking pictures of our little guy.

There were these really cool cabins the kids got

to tour through.

I think I have a picture of my great-grandpa

in a very similar pose in front of an old house.

Father and son, having a ball on the Hayride


Where's Chandler?

Chandler and some classmates decided to

have a friendly little hay fight.

A panoramic shot of the cabins

Last days and Party Plans

Morgan on her last day of school, with Miss Kim, her Preschool Teacher.

Morgan has loved being in Preschool this year, and has greatly improved her speech. So much, that they have excited her out of the Speech Therapy Program. Yeah Morgan!Morgan showing off for the Camera during her Last Day of Preschool Party!
Gabe and his teacher, Mrs. Bocast, on his birthday


Gabe's cake for his Birthday Party on Saturday. It was a work in progress, and what we originally started out making, is not what we ended up with.

Gabe took over the painting (watered down food coloring).

This corner of the cake was Gabe's idea. He wanted the stream to flow down the cake, onto

the cardboard, and into a little puddle.

The three musketeers at Gabe's Party Saturday.

Grandma had a little face painting table and all the kids went away

with pirate beards and mustaches.

Argggg, Matey!

Gabe blowing out the candles on his cake.

He had an awesome party, and enjoyed playing with all

his friends.

woops! I changed my template and accidentally erased EVERYTHING in my sidebar. I need every one's blog addresses again please. Just leave it in the comments. Thanks guys.

No numbers Please!

So, as some of you may know, yesterday was my birthday. (not telling which one, cause I still haven't accepted that I can no longer check the box for ages 18-29.) All in all, it was pretty darn great, and one of the most active birthdays I've had in a while. My mom went on Gabe's field trip to the musk ox farm (thank you mom) so that I could go work out. Matt had the day off work, so I then road my bike the 4-5 miles to the tennis courts to meet him. Unfortunately, he had misunderstood where we were supposed to rendezvous, so he wasn't there. (love ya babe!) I called him, and he came and picked me up, and we took my bike to the shop to have the gears checked out. (I couldn't get it to the 3-5 gears) But I was glad just to spend time with my guy. We got home in time for Morgan to be dropped off by the bus, and Matt spent time doing yard honey do's while I showered and got ready for my piano lessons I had that afternoon.

I was so excited because my friend Karlie had called earlier in the week, and invited our family over for a BBQ. But around 3:30pm, Matt came in, and said "well, the jig is up...we're not really going over for a BBQ, its a surprise Girls Night for you and your friends, they'll be over at 5pm to get you for Dinner, and I'm watching all the kids". (Karlie's husband works on the slope, and Jeremy was working late) Do I have the best husband or what? So I got ready, and at 5pm, I left my wonderful husband with a house full of little kids, and went out to dinner with my good friends. We had a blast! Thanks again ladies! Your the best. And I definitely have the world's greatest husband!

What's in Your Purse?

I was tagged by a good friend to go through my purse and show you what's inside.

Here ya go Andrea....

This is my purse (one of many) I love it because its

small, but has lots of room inside for all the necessities.

no, I'm not a druggie. I have a snack bag with Tylenol in it for those

pesky headaches that start up right before my cycling class.

And I try to keep these mints in my purse because Matt doesn't like

gum, which is my personal favorite for freshening up one's mouth.

Yeah, I don't often carry a lot of cash, but I had just cashed a check from

a piano student, and after filling up my car, actually had a little change. ($65.00 to fill up the Sadona!)

My keys, (which I love having a remote for the garage door opener to have

on my key chain and in the car).

I always carry sanitizer, (hey I have kids!) and I love to chew gum.

My beauty products. Between Morgan and I, there
always has to be some sort of chap stick, or lipstick around.

My little IPOD. I love having this in my car for the impromptu run, or

tanning session. And I almost always have my phone. Which I was

really grateful for this fall when I ran out of gas on the way

to the gym at 5:30am and had to call Matt to come and rescue me.

Well, that's me in a nutshell. Or at least the necessities of

my purse. Have a wonderful day, and feel free to empty out

your purse and show us what you hall around with you all day.

(I'm just glad its not a Mary Poppins style diaper bag with enough food

to feed a 3rd world country anymore)

Carnival Fun!

The kids and I went to a carnival Saturday at my nephew's school.

It was Gabe and Chandler's old preschool, and they

had fun seeing old friends, and playing at their old stomping grounds.Morgan and Chandler had so much fun in the Bounce house.

Every time I turned around, they were running back out to the Bounce house.
Morgan and her cousins decided it would be fun to get their hair crazied up.
She insisted on Red and Purple colors.

Gabe and his cousin Hunter are best buddies, and have been

since they were born 3 weeks apart. Its always fun when these

two get together. You never know what they'll do, but you always

know they'll have fun doing it.
(please excuse the dirty face, they had just eaten hot dogs, and mom

hadn't had a chance to attack him with wet ones yet)

Great day! The Green Explosion is happening all around us. I love it! I'm busy planning Gabe's Pirate Party this weekend. Saturday will be crazy! I'm doing the Torch Run that morning, then Gabe's party, then our Ward party is that night. Renae and I went running tonight. We did the 5K route for the Torch Run. It was windy, and the first half was miserable because the wind was in my face, and very cold. But I got a second wind, and the final 1/4 mile, I just got a burst of energy and sprinted to the end. It was awesome! I even beat my old time. (not super fast, but better then my times last year.) 3.2 miles in 32 minutes. Yeah me. Thanks for being my running partner Renae!

Happy Mother's Day!

I know, I am a day late, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank my mom for being the amazing person she is. I have learned how to be a mom from her. I hear Laurie's voice sometimes when I'm talking to my kids, and surprisingly, I don't mind it nearly as much as I thought I would. I learned how to cook from her. My mom is an amazing cook, and has a great reputation that I'm happy to say I have come to appreciate, and often benefit from. She has such a wonderful talent for creating things. Whether its last minute costumes, or Valentines Boxes I know I can always pick her brain and not be disappointed. It has been such a blessing to live (literally) down the street from my parents. The kids are able to ride their bikes down to grandma's, and I know anytime there's an emergency, they are just a call away.

I also want to take a minute to express my gratitude for my other mother. Matt's mom has been every girls ideal Mother In Law. I actually got to know Matt's mom before I even met Matt. (I worked for her and my SIL at their Bookstore). It was so nice to get to know the women, before she became the MIL. She is amazing! She is always willing to help others, and is such a great listener. Twice during our marriage, this woman has been kind enough to open her home to our little family. I am so grateful for those opportunities to get to know her better. Playing games, eating dinner out on the deck in the evenings. She is a wonderful mother because she raised the best man...Matt is an amazing husband and father.

I am so lucky to have these two mothers in my life. If I can become even half of the great women and mothers that they are, I will count myself very lucky.

Pirate Party!

So, here's the invitations for yet another "pirate" party.
I swear, this child is testing my creativity to the max. So here's what

I came up with this time....

1. I found this scull/sword crossbones graphic on the Internet (I lOVE google)

I copied them onto sticker paper, then took my handy dandy 1" circle punch, and

punched them out.

2. For the actual invitation, I printed it onto card stock, crumpled it up,

and tore the edges off. Then I dipped

it into a tea/brown paint mixture. Then I laid them flat, and let them dry.

At first, it was taking forever. But then I set them on a baking pan, put it on top of

the stove while I was cooking dinner in the oven, and they were dried in no time.

3. Then I just folded them and closed it with the sticker. (originally, I had wanted to use

a wax seal, but no wax I had was thick enough to look/act authentic).

Hence, Plan B, the stickers. So, what do you think? There's more to the invitation, but it included my phone # and address, so I cropped that part off. I think they turned out pretty cool though.

1st Grade Spring Concert

Gabe's Spring Concert was tonight. They sang 4 songs, and gabe did awesome! Gabe back in his classroom

Isn't my little guy adorable?
Hard to believe he's turning
7 next week.

All three of our blessings in front of the school tonight.

All four of my blessings...

Isn't my sweetie cute?

Two for Tea, and tea for three!

Morgan attended her first tea party the other day at Grandma's. Christa and Camora also there. They had chocolate dipped strawberries, cucumber sandwiches, sugar cookies,and of course, tea. (Chrystal light, actually) They even got gussied up for the occasion, and wore make-up, did their nails, and got dressed up. Morgan wore feathers to her first tea party with the ladies.

This is an old picture my mom emailed to me. I guess the kids were just have'n fun with grandpa's camo jacket.

I think they must have seen this in a Scooby Doo cartoon.

The horrible 6 legged camouflage beast.
Katie, your kids probably recognize it, right?

TENNIS ANYONE?

Today has been awesome so far. I went to the gym this morning for my Cardio Sculpt class and moved up to a heavier bar. Then I ran over to the only tennis court in town and played for a while, (I miss playing more regularly, but I have the hardest time finding a tennis partner). Then I went for a little 2 mile jog on the bike trails around the park. I feel great, and Matt was putting the electric fence up for the dog when I got home. Life if good! (I wonder if he can hot wire the kitchen for the dog if this whole mouse trap thing doesn't work!) LOL

Week in Review

So, its been yet another week, and I have slacked in my blogging. But it has been a fun week, so here ya go. Monday night was Family Home Evening. It was a b-e-a-utiful day. And Matt and I have been dying to get back on the tennis courts. So we took the kids, and had fun for about an hour, teaching mostly Gabe how to play one of my favorite sports. Chandler and Morgan had more fun riding their bikes around the courts. I think we'll go just Matt and I for date night next week. That way we'll actually get to play, and break a sweat. Gabe really had fun. He is definitely our little athlete. He enjoys the challenge of learning new things, and getting better as he practices.

Chandler's best 'wink'.

After we were done playing tennis, we road bikes down the bike path to a nearby park. We turned the kids lose, and had fun chasing each other around, playing tag, and hide and seek. This one is of Chandler hiding in a stack of tires.

I love this park. There's TONS of bridges, and board walks for the kids to run on. Mazes, and swings, and ramps. They had so much fun just exploring.

Saturday was clean up day. After a morning of raking, picking up trash, and cleaning up our own yard, I took the kids down to Grandma's, so they could help clean Grandma and Papa to clean up their back yard. (since we spend half our summer there). Morgan is taking a break, and having some fun with her cousins, riding the cars around.

Chandler's job was to fill up the wagon with dead leaves, and grass, and then take it to the back of the property to dump in the grass clippings graveyard. He was a pretty good worker.

All in all, it was a great week. Till Sunday Morning...

&* %$%^$%^&%^$ Dang Dog!!!!!!

I stayed up late Saturday night, baking cupcakes for our ward's Linger Longer the next day. I went down Sunday morning to frost the cupcakes, and found half of them missing. What the? Of course the first suspects were kids. But Matt put them both through his lie detector test (its really amazing, you'll have to ask him about this), and concluded that the children were all telling the truth about not taking them. I mean, we didn't even find so much as a crumb, or wrapper. Matt kept asking if the dog did it. But I was with him the whole time, and there's no way, he had the time to eat 10 cupcakes that fast. So, I made another cake to take to church, and left the rest of the cupcakes to frost when I got home, and I figuring we would have them for FHE. Then tonight, I'm sitting there talking to Morgan at the counter, with my back turned to the cupcakes, and I become award of a smacking, licking sound behind me, and I turn to see Bear frantically licking his lips, and the dishcloth that had been covering the cupcakes was on the floor, with a whole bunch of crumbs, and only two cupcakes are left on the counter. (they were tucked between the toaster and the breadbox, and I think his Giraffe like tongue just didn't reach that far) I could have strangled that stupid dog. He ate 22 cupcakes in two sittings. Who does that? I'm talking wrapper and all. Its like he swallowed them whole. Hardly any sign that they had even existed. That's it. I'm sick of this d*** dog who thinks he can eat what ever he wants. I think we should have named him Wilbur, instead of Bear. Tomorrow I'm setting Mouse Traps all over the kitchen counter. Hopefully he'll snap his tongue off and that'll be the end of this habit.