Father's Day 2010

What a great day to celebrate Father's!!! Jay has been working horrible hours as of late. He leaves before the kids get up in the morning and is home long after they have gone to bed at night. So the weekends are really the only time he gets to spend with them. They each made him a goregous card. They used colored feathers, stickers and markers. They also got him a new shirt, hat and the movie AVATAR ( I am not sure why he wanted this movie, I thought it was terrible, but it wasn't for me). Their newest game is to do treasure hunts. Each kid made up clues that took him all over the house to find his gifts. So cute. They would laugh and giggle each time he would go to one location and not find exactly what he was looking for. But don't let him fool you, he loved the attention!!!

Even though he had piles of work to do he managed to find some time to just chill and have fun with his gang. Looks like he even got a good workout!!! Happy Father's Day!!!

Laker Party!!!

This year my kids have decided that they are "huge" Laker fans. So of course we had to have a party and watch the game. This also started a friendly rivalry between my brother Adam and myself. He, of course, of cheering for the Celtics as we were cheering for the Lakers. He asked me why........... really the only answers I had were....... we live here, and the kids LOVE the LAKERS. :> So then my question to him was .....why NOT?! Hunter and Tanner had also heard the name Kobe Bryant and have decided he is the best player around and love watching him. They also believe that one day they will grow up and play for the Lakers and be better than him.( tha's my boys). Naturally, this meant we had to become their biggest cheering section.(and possibly the youngest)

As Thursday approached so did the excitment of watching"final" game. This time we decided to go all out though and really have a party instead of just having the game on and watching. We made our purple hats! (it is hard to see but you can see that they say "Go Lakers". Each one of the kids designed their own hat.

We made some posters!!! Cheered....... yelled...... and chanted. The kids even got away with a little jumping on the furniture. Of course, throughout the game we had to text Uncle Adam and remind him that even though we were down we were going to win!!! The kids were great at chanting "DEFENSE", and "SCORE".

And what is a party without pizza, wings, breadsticks, soda and cookies!!! Come on we know how to party!!!

Once the game ended and we were victorious. We had to text Uncle Adam and express our deepest condolences that the Celtics lost. We are sorry. In your face, buddy!!! (where do my kids learn these horrible slang phrases?) And this is the picture mail we got back. HAHAHAHA. Now he swears it is just a close up of his knuckles...... hmmmm...... what do you think? We will let you be the judge. We love you Uncle Adam!!! Have a great weekend!!!!

Hunter's Big Day!!!

Hunter turned 8 in October of last year. We had just moved and did not know which ward we were supposed to be attending and trying to get settled. He and I talked about it and thought that it would be fun for him to have the missionary discussions prior to baptism. Tanner did and it was a great experience for the whole family. It also helped him know he wanted to be baptized and to have a better understanding of what baptism meant.

After playing phone tag and being in and out of town , Hunter finally began his journey with these two great elders. They came each week for a month and taught Hunter about the church and what baptism meant. It was a fun and crazy time for all of us. One time they stayed and had dinner, another time we had yummy brownies and the other times we just got the chance to learn. The kids loved the experience and the missionaries admit it was good practice for them as well. After one of the final discussions they gave Hunter a gift. They had previously asked him what his favorite color was. He replied red and blue. So they made him a hat. Such a thoughtful and nice gift.(plus very impressive for a couple of young men). He will treasure it for years to come and always remember the elders who visited him.

Hunter asked his Great Uncle Bert to baptize him. What a special thing this was. Uncle Bert lives here in CA. He was always my favorite uncle when I was growing up as a child and has remained so as I have grown up. It was so fun to be close to him when we lived here three years ago and to now be back again is even better. Uncle Bert possesses a special quality where he can make you feel like you are the most important thing in his life when you are with him. He and Hunter also have this special bond. Hunter can do no wrong in his eyes. So having him here to baptize him meant the world to them both.

After he was baptized he was confirmed. It was so exciting to have his Grandpa Bruce here to do that. We were not sure if they were going to make it to the baptism but as luck would have it Dad just happened to have a few days off of class and they drove out here. Really I don't think anything would have stopped them from coming. It was so special to have them there, plus it was great that they were able to come in a couple of days early and play with us. It is always sad to see them go and we wish they lived closer.

Hunter ,we are so proud of you!!! Daddy had to get out of his "monkey suit" as soon as he could. Could not even last a few more minutes for a picture. :>


All in all it was a fabulous day! We had Deb(my cousin) and her cute family come. (She even spoke for us.) Our Aunt Sue was there with Uncle Bert. Lauren (who sat with us through the missionary discussions and spoke too). And we had lots of friends from church show up and surprise us. It was an incredible turn out. We ate lots of yummy food and had a great time visiting. We could not have asked for a better way to celebrate a special day. (Well , that's not entirely true, we did have some aunts and uncles that would have loved to have been here but could not make the it this trip, so it would have been better if they could have come. We missed you Adam (Hunter did want you to baptize him, there is something about you that just brings a smile to his face), Jo, Bruce, Elizabeth and Marrianne!! But we know you were here in spirit!) And Hunter loved the phone calls. They meant the world to him!

Thank you so much to everyone to helped to be a part of this special day for us!!!

Crazy Hair Day 2010

Only two things could have made this better....... First, Ms. Lauren would have been here to help like she did last year (we miss you Lauren and Phil)...... Second, I had not just given the boys hair cuts so they would have had more hair. LOL.

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Enjoy and have a fabulous weekend, my friends!!!

DUCT TAPE!!!!!!

For the record, duct tape does fix everything.
Here is my confession of the week. .....A little background info......I thought I was being really cool trying to save money this year by buying shoes from Payless. They had the buy one get one half price sale. Not too bad. Unfortunately, my kids managed to wear them out in record time. So we ended up buying more shoes for them as winter in the Antelope Valley was not over yet.(This would not have been the case if we still lived in AZ as winter usually only lasts two weeks!) So once again, I found myself out there looking for a bargain. And once again I was so proud of myself when I found shoes on closeout at Target, $8.00 each. I knew that I was rocking the bargain world. (No ,I did not learn my lesson the first time, I was100% positive that I had just found "lemons" and the next ones would be better.)

Hmmmmmm...... Well, the reason they were so cheap is just that...... they were cheap. Okay, not too bad as we live in California and it was sandal time. So I bought sandals and the weather had been cooperating and the kids have been wearing them. However, much to my dismay, the weather is all over the grid. It gets HOT and then FREEZES the next day. (okay maybe not freezing by Utah standards, but definitely so for CA or AZ) Which meant that I had to pull the shoes out again this week. Well they were worn out beyond hope. Toes sticking out the end, side, and bottom. I had to do something. I was not going to buy more shoes as the kids would for sure wear them out in a week and then it will be sandal season . But by the time we need shoes again in the Fall ,they will not fit. My monkeys feet are growing at a super sonic speed right now.

This was my solution for the rest of the week. DUCT TAPE!! Next time I will try my red version of duct tape. Not pretty. But the kids loved it and IT WORKS!!!! (Do you suppose it would work on the knees of jeans too?)

Hope you are all having a great week. Happy Memorial Day, my friends.

Urgent Care Fun!!!!

I decided to just lump our latest urgent care trips into one post. You can do what I did when I saw them. Giggle and shake my head. Seriously, we keep the medical professionals in business!!!

This is Tanner. He was playing football with his brothers when one of them accidently kicked him and his thumb went all the way back. Not broken, just sprained but 2 hours at the urgent care.(Each time we have a broken arm, Tanner thinks it is so cool and he has wished he would break his arm. That would be four different broken arms on various kiddos. Each time I tell him it is not fun and it would be painful. After this experience....... he has decided he never wants a broken bone!!! Yea!! Progress. )

Next we have spring break in Utah. This is also another one of those giggle moments. We rarely make a trip without ending up in the ER. Luckily this time it was not a result of a broken bone. Hunter, who you know, never sits still, is never quiet when he is sick had been down for three days. He was High School Musical over and over. Finally, night 3 still sick with a fever, the runs, had started throwing up and was in severe pain. The docs thought it might be appendicitis.

So at 11:00 at night my Dad and I headed out in the snow to the ER. Thank heavens for great dads who will sit with you late at night. Thank heavens for awesome moms who will watch the rest of the brood so you can go to the ER late at night!! They ran some tests, gave him meds and since he was showing signs of dehydration gave him fluids and at 3:30 we were released with the caution to watch him.

He seemed to perk up alright. However, after we got home he from Spring break he became my unlucky one again. It was a Saturday night. Winding down the day and looking forward to getting kids in bed and watching tv. I had let the kids stay a little later. Bryan and Hunter had gone to the shower together. One of their favorite things to do is dump out all of my shampoo and make the shower slippery. Yea. Well it back fired as they bumped heads. Bryan got a goose egg on his head but Hunter got cut. So off we go to Urgent Care.

For the record........ if your child is bleeding from above the eye....... they will see you faster. :> After only two hours, he came home with five stitches. Our first set of stitches. Not our first cut, but in the past they have been able to glue them shut.

And here we have Nathan. Just last week. Jay, of course, was in the Netherlands for a conference. ( He always seems to miss the fun. ) Friday afternoon, after the doctor office would be closed this is what Nathan comes screaming into the house to show me. GRRRR. I thought about going to urgent care. But decided that I could fix it just as well as they could. So I cleaned it up, butterfly bandaged it and it is healing nicely. Come on "chicks dig scars, right?!?!?!?"

So there you have it. We survived and only with a few scars that will make for great stories when they are older. I still wonder to this day how my mom managed with only two set of stitches and no broken bones with six kids. Have a fabulous day my friends!!!

Are you Stinkin kidding me?!?!?!?!

And I do mean Stinkin!!! Tanner and Hunter are taking an after school biology course. Well the 1st week they had the wonderful opportunity to dissect squids. Yes, that is what you are looking at in the bag and you also read it correctly..... squids. The boys thought they were so very cool they had to bring them home to show us all and gross out the little ones.

Well after seeing this smile on Tanner's face I realized I was in trouble. I let them tell me the gross details of what they learned and looked at the diagrams that they had brought home. I then sat them both down and explained that they must put them in the garbage and why. I told them if they did not put them in the garbage that within a few days I would know for sure because they would start to stink. So out to the garbage they marched and promptly placed them in the trash. Or so I thought. (This is Tuesday)

Well on Wednesday they went to Scouts. I picked them up and they had made cute little garbage bags to hang in the cars. Tanner quickly climbed in the car and showed me his and placed it in the car for dad to use. He was just finishing a juice box and put the box in the trash to "show" me how it would work. He was very proud of himself. I asked Hunter if he was going to put his in the van. He told me he would in a couple of days. When I tucked him in for bed I noticed he had it hanging on the shelf. Cute, I thought he can finally throw trash away and keep his room clean.*giggle*

Well Sunday.........(5 days later) we decided to take a quick trip to Disneyland. It was a great fun day!!! We got home about 8 and the kids were tired. We are frantically getting them ready for bed and Tanner complains that his room smells like the dog had an accident. I go in and look in every nook and cranny to find dog poo, but to no avail. I finally decide it must be something that is stinking outside and since I have left the windows open ithe odor has just snuck in. NOT!!!!!!!Jay was not falling for that one. I go back to rushing kids in and out of the shower to hear a horrible noise as Jay discovers the rotting squid in the cute little trash.

Gross, Gross, Gross. At first I was so frustrated, but then Hunter goes on to tell me how very sad he was that we just killed the squids so we could cut them up and look at them. Then, he told me that he was so sad that he was going to just have to throw it away. How would that mommy of the poor squid feel if she knew her baby was just thrown away. Hmmmmm...... he rendered me speechless. (and for those who know me well, knows this is not an easy thing to do) WOW, where did that come from. Big kind hearts. However, I am still not sure that their room smells normal. But they are boys so that effort may be futile anyway. But I must say I am very proud that these are my boys and they are "good" kids!!!
Sleep well my friends!!!