Goodbye May

Finally May is over!!! Anyone who lives outside of Utah is probably thinking "who wouldn't like a month like May? May is warm and blissful and beautiful." Well, you are all welcomed to visit next year and see for yourselves. Like a house guest that has stayed too long, I am happy to see her go. It probably didn't help that she threw bi-polar tantrums the whole time- I mean the throw yourself on the floor and scream bloody murder kind of tantrums... warm one day, rain the next, and the next and the next, allergies the next and then snow all over. Seriously. But here it is June and rain seems to be the thing to get used to. Whoever has been doing all the rain dances, KNOCK IT OFF! My kids need to get out of the house more or they are seriously going to end up entombed in the walls. I'm kidding, only kidding. Of course I'm sure when summer finally decides to show up (always running a couple months late around here) we will reminisce over the cool spring weather. And about now you're probably thinking OK, crazy lady, enough about the weather!!!

Fine, for those who don't like the fascinating weather channel broadcast here are some pictures instead.

Zoom Zoom.

Get him while he's down.  Gives you about 2 seconds and he's off again.

Lately Eve has been so jealous whenever Kole plays with Jack. The other day, on the verge of tears, she asked him "Is it because you like him more than me?" Awww.  Yes.  Yes it is.  Kids are so insecure. Always needing to be told they're loved. How needy. Ha ha.  Like I'm really that mean.  I can't remember what we really said.  I'm sure it was something comforting and reassuring because we are such great parents, as you all know. 

But seriously, I love them BOTH more than anything in the whole wide world.

Here is my cat Stimpy. Evidently he thinks my flower pot is his new bed. I set it out to "get ready to plant things in" and that same day he decided to take over it. Now I'm afraid to plant anything in it. Flowers would look pretty but he'll probably just think I'm being nice to fill his bed with some extra cushion.

At least he found some pillows to crash on this time.

We had a nice little family get together with Kole's family for Memorial Day.  The kids (big and small) had fun playing with their cousins.

Kenna:  Just like her mommy.

Eve with her entourage... Taylor (top right), and a random other girl named Taylor who just wandered by the party and ended up staying (left), Brooklyn (middle), Kenna (bottom right).

 We all had fun playing PIG. Even I played (despite my fear of balls flying at my face). I was forced to squeal pretty early on but I can accept that I'm no pro... unlike some people who played.  Of course Kole's two most competitive brothers were absent so the self-aimed swearing was kept to a minimum.  Eventually it came down to two people (I won't name any names but you know who you are) neither of whom would just put down their pride and lose so other people could play again.  Twenty minutes later I volunteered Kole to take the bullet and lose.  I also like to volunteer him for things like helping my friends move.  Any takers?

Perhaps those who know Kole's family will notice a new girl in the pictures (though I do wish I had a better picture. The ones here don't do her justice)... anyways, that would be Courtney, Sam's new girlfriend. Sorry ladies, it looks like he's a goner. Like her, I suppose we are just waiting for the ring. They were pretty much connected at the hip the whole time (Ahhh, to be all twitterpated and newly in love. It was cute to watch and yet it made me just a little jealous to realize Kole and I used to be young and cute like that.) Anyways, we all got to meet her this weekend as she came to visit from DC. Let me tell you, Damion is never going to live it down... Sam who lives in Logan finds a girl in DC but it seems that Damion who lives in DC is still single. OK, Damion, prove me wrong... anytime now. I think, if Damion had planned properly he would have flown out to visit last weekend instead of this coming weekend and then maybe he could have gotten some connections back home. Just a thought.

Poor little Jack wanted to play sooooo bad.  He's all boy and he wants to do everything the big boys do. 

And of course we couldn't have daddy playing with Jack and not Eve.

 

At first glance it appears that this is Eve's bike... after all it fits her just right. But in fact it is Grayson's bike. I don't understand the "big kid on a little bike" craze. But whatever. I'm not really sure at what age I lost touch with what's cool (do they even use that word anymore) but at some point I just had to admit that I live in the boonies of cooldom.

At least someone in the family is cool.

... and young and gorgeous.

... and well loved.

And here is just another picture to confirm Eve's suspicions.

Blog? What blog? Oh yea, I have a blog.

Guess it’s about time to update my blog. Unfortunately I hardly took any pictures this last month so you’ll just have to read all about everything. I know, shame on me.  Blog readers are often like little kids... they don't want to read a lot unless there are pictures that go along with it.  I promise to be more diligent about my picture taking this month.  Anyways, here’s what’s been going on since our last post (at least what I can remember- these are in no particular order).

* Kole and I found out we get to go on the Trek! It’s really a youth trek, not a whole stake trek, so I had to bug a few people (namely the Bishop and stake young women's president) to get to go but as you all probably know “the squeaky wheel gets the oil.” I’ve never been on the Trek before so I am way excited- though I am not sure it is completely sane to be excited about hiking miles through the Wyoming desert in the hot July sun, dressed in pioneer attire and pulling a hand cart, not to mention no hope of a shower or real bathroom for four days, - but I’m still beaming with anticipation. Plus I get to help the youth of our stake get spiritually prepared to go. I love that I have this assignment. I have no idea what I am doing but I am sure it will be a lot of fun mixed with a lot of hard work. Somehow Kole gets to go but he doesn’t have to do any work beforehand. Hmmmm. How convenient. Anyways, I am happy that this trek is mostly for the young men and young women. I love the youth of the Church. They are so fun and funny and insightful and it will make the Trek extra fun to go through this experience with them. Now I just have to get in shape so I don’t end up with an unhappy fate like many of the original pioneers.

* Kole and I finally graduated from institute! http://institute.lds.org/ We still intend to be perpetual students (I’ll just say, the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.) but it was nice to make everything official and get a diploma along with the 2 additional certificates for extra classes taken. Guess it was about time since we've been going for over 8 years! It’s a solemn feeling to add up years and think about what else was going on in your life that many years ago and what has happened all during those years. It is practically a miracle we didn’t get sidetracked with all the craziness of life- marriage, kids, work, school, callings, etc. We went all year round and even with babies in tow at times. I love Institute and all the time and “sacrifice” has been totally worth it. I hope we always live close enough to an Institute so we never have to give up this incredible learning experience.

*We all got the stomach flu. Ugh! Even if you don't live around here you should be afraid... I know so many people who have already passed it along to their family and friends in other cities and states. Kole, Eve and Jack seemed to get the mild version... it only lasted about 24-48 hours with a little lingering nausea. Jack complained that it felt like something biting his tummy from the inside. Cute the way he describes feeling sick. Mostly the kids would just throw up and then go back to playing and then throw up again a little later and then play some more. But from what I've experienced and what my friends have said, it tends to be a little worse for adults. I am positive I have never been so sick in my entire life!!! My mom concurs. The first day I couldn't eat anything or keep any food in me so my blood sugar level got too low and I kept passing out. I thought I was going to have to go to the hospital and get hooked up to IVs. It was so terrible. Even after the worst of it, I lived off crackers and Gatorade and didn't get out of my pajamas or leave the house for 4 days. I will spare you all the gory details but let's just say that I now know more than ever that Kole really really loves me.

* My church calling kept me super busy during the month of April. It's like having a part time job on top of my full time job as a wife and mom. Whew! Good thing I love it.  Firstly, we decided it was time to do primary teacher reviews. Since one of the counselors in the presidency just had a baby, our president asked me to go along to all the interviews. We wanted to really get to know our teachers and how they were doing with their callings so we put together a rigorous questionnaire and then had a sit down “interview” at each of the teachers in their homes to go over the questions. It was a good thing- we have amazing teachers and we learned so much- but obviously it meant a lot of time away from home and family pretty much every Fri, Sat and Sun. 18 interviews at 45 minutes each = You do the math. I’d rather not find out just how many hours it took. Fortunately, we have a year break until we need to do these again.

But on top of that busyness I taught Sharing Time all month long. That basically means I lived in a state of continual stress thinking about what to do for my lessons all month long and then every Saturday night my sweet husband and children had to live with me ignoring them so I could prepare my lesson. Thankfully the Spirit is the real teacher and the Lord is good to ensure everything turns out fine despite my potential to completely mess things up… probably shouldn’t agonize so much over everything. Oh, also and I was in charge of putting together the Stake baptism program. Ahhh, this month is much more relaxing. 

* Kole started a workout program... P90X to be exact. Have you seen the infomercials? I get tired just watching them. I think I’m not even in good enough shape to get in shape with P90X. But Kole is motivated… He has a “Biggest Loser” contest going on between him and some friends. I guess they are doing the contest for something like 100 days. I’m actually really impressed with the results so far. He lost about 15 lbs last month! So not fair. The only time I could lose that much in a month is if I have a baby pop out of me. Anyways, I promised Kill Joy that I wouldn’t post any embarrassing pictures- even though they are just sitting on my computer practically begging to be released to the public. Guess you’ll just have to be surprised when you see him next.

* Misty, the dog from the underworld, was sent off to obedience school for 3 months. I’m hoping they work on her digging instincts.

* We buzzed Jack’s head a little too short a couple weeks ago. Now he looks even more like his daddy. When he saw himself in the mirror he cried. But it’s growing and he seems to be less traumatized from the whole experience. We were supposed to have family pictures a few days ago but they got pushed back until the weather gets better. Good thing.

* Mother’s Day was really quite peaceful and uneventful. We went to church and then I came home and took and nap and watched the Blindside and basically vegged. Normally we would have done some big family thing with both of our moms but that didn’t happen this year… Both of our moms ended up going out of town- Kole’s mom took a vacation to Oregon with her mom and sister. My grandma ended up getting really sick over the weekend and had to go to the hospital so my mom flew out to California to be with her. Not exactly the circumstances that make for a great Mother’s Day but I guess we will have to celebrate when they get home. Maybe I’ll even take some pictures.

* Easter was in there somewhere… still hardly any pics.  I told Kole to go take pictures of the kids hunting eggs.  This was the best one.  Need I say more. 

* General Conference (I really loved Julie Beck's talk… she's always amazing.  Look it up for yourself: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1207-3,00.html)
* We had a few freak snowstorms.  Ahhh, spring in Utah... I'm going to be really bitter if it snows in summer this year.
* I guess I did get some more pictures of Jack falling asleep in random places.  Cute kid.  I probably should just start an album of him sleeping.   

* And I'm sure there is a bunch more stuff that I can't remember right now.

No Foolin'

We woke up this April Fools morning to quite a surprise... Mother Nature is a cruel prankster!

It took us at least 20 minutes to round up all the snowgear and then put it all on but only about 10 minutes out in the snow before they started complaining about the cold and wanted to go back inside. Hmmm.  That seems like a rather bad investment of my time.

Anyways, it sure does seem like winter sucker-punched spring today (and we all got to feel the effects) but I have a feeling that spring will win out in the end...

Ok, now a funny story:

On Sunday we had a Primary Presidency meeting at my house while Kole went to his Elder's Quorum meeting over at the church. Of course since evidently men aren’t able to multi-task with the childcare duties he left the kids home with me.  So anyways I put a movie on in my room and told Eve and Jack to be good while I'm in the middle of my meeting. You would think I should know better than to think they would be the sweet obedient children I was envisioning but like they say, hindsight is 20/20. In the middle of our meeting Jack comes in looking somewhat confused and panicked, rubbing his face vigorously with his beloved blanket. I call him over to inspect his problem and I see "something" all over his face. At first I was just as confused as him but almost instantly I had the notorious "aha moment"- it was SUPERGLUE! All over his face! OK, I know this makes me look like a negligent parent but in my defense, I had hid the superglue up high, behind stuff and yet he still found it. I think he thought it was makeup because it has a little brush and he brushed it all over his face. Luckily, he didn't glue his eyes or mouth shut.  You may be tempted to think "poor kid, that was just bad luck" but don't be fooled.  Only minutes later I come upstairs to check on them and I find that Jack has colored with highlighter all over my computer screen and desk. How do I know it is him?  The proof is smudged all over his chubby little hands.  As for Eve, the verdict is guilt by association.  How convenient she didn't tell me anything as it was happening.  Grrrr.  At least highlighter washes off and with time superglue eventually comes off skin. Is it wrong to be happy he didn't decide to color his face and paint the computer with superglue instead?  Gotta keep my priorities in order, right?

Invasion of the giant termites

Termites- you know those dirty creatures that destroy wooden things and then leave "piles" around? Yep, we got 'em and we 'em bad. But let me tell you, these are not your garden variety termites. They are HUGE. I've never seen termites quite like these but based on their behavior there is no denying that is exactly what they are. About three days ago they invaded (I believe they caught a ride from my parent's house). Their destruction began almost immediately upon their arrival. They dug three holes in our deck, they've eaten the corners off what's left of our deck and planter boxes and yep, they've even left nasty piles of "stuff" all over. Oh the piles. Don’t even ask Kole or you will certainly hear an earful. Even worse, I agreed to let them invade. Crazy, I know. The other strange thing is they have names; names that would almost make you think they would be cute and sweet- names like Misty and Cutter. I will try to contain the giant pests as long as I can but beware; I hear there are others out there like them. I took a picture of them just so if you ever see any like these you will know to protect your stuff!

Exhibit A and Exhibit B

The kids in the middle are actually the "good" ones in this picture.

(Did I mention THEY DUG THREE HOLES IN MY DECK!)

Mom and Dad, your bill is in the mail.  I am sure it will we waiting for you when you get home.  XOXO

On a much happier note, it's park weather again.  Happy warm (and not just "Utah warm") and sunny, almost like a real spring day!  Boy am I glad to get the kids out of the house and into the sun.  They need to run off their energy on something besides my treadmill.  Here are some pictures from our day at the long-lost park right across the street from our house.  It has been so long, I practically forgot it was there. 

Eve is getting so big.  Last fall I would have to stand right under her everytime she wanted to climb something on the playground (She is a little clumsy sometimes.  Hey, I'm not being mean.  She has the scars to prove it) but now she is a master climber.  Sigh of happiness/reminiscing.

Is this fear or fun?  Hard to tell but he refused to go down the slide the whole rest of the time.  Big baby.

Just ignore all the weird bean pods that look like dead snakes all over the ground.  Can you say Creeeeepeeeee?

I was highly tempted to just leave them hanging there... but I'm not that bad of a mom... despite what everyone may think as they read this blog.

Ok, also here are a few other pics from over the last little while...

More sleeping in random places

Mommy's little helper- all decked out.  It's beyond me why they don't make manly aprons for boys this age.  What?  Boys have to clean house too, ya know.

Lunch and a real train.  Kids thought that was so cool.

Ok, now that you read my blog, get off the computer and go enjoy the nice weather!

It's my day. It's all mine.

Can you tell from my new bright and beautiful blog background that I'm a little antsy for some spring flowers? It is now officially March and the sunshine and warmth seemed to arrive on queue. No flowers yet but the left-over snow is brown and ugly and my lawn has mud-puddles.  It's a good sign.  But am I going to sit here and talk about the weather like you and I are in the middle of some awkward conversation forced by a random run-in in the grocery store? Of course not. Let's get back to life.
So, anyways, here are some pictures. I'll tell what's up as we go along...

To start out with we have some pics from my little birthday party yesterday.  I love the close family parties but I told Kole that next year I want an all out party with all our friends and family.  Mark your calendar now because you are invited.  Even though my birthday is not until March 2, I have been soaking up the attention for days now and I intend to continue to do so as long as I can.  Kole has been a super-duper hubby to allow me to use the "but it's my birthday" excuse all weekend to avoid doing things I'd rather not.  So sweet.  I wonder just how long this can last. 

I love the intense look on Jack's face in this picture.  It's like he's had some long battle with the cupcake and now he's going in for the kill. 

I think it was a very good thing that her dress is purple because after last night it would have ended up that way anyhow.

What?  This isn't how you wash your hands?

Thanks Deb for taking the time to look at and "read" every book they brought to you.  You have patience like Job. 

Me, talking on the phone to my Grandma Louise who lives far away in warm and sunny Southern California.  Sooooo jealous. 

Grandma Wendy and my little monkey man Jack.   No more monkeys jumping on the bed!  Just after this picture was taken Eve decided she wanted to join Jack jumping on the bed.  Bad idea.  Her bed is definitely not made for so much fun.

This ubber-cute guy is my bro-in-law Grayson. (I love ya, Grayson. Don't hate me for blogging about you)  It appears he has become a black-hole of cool almost overnight. It's like all the cool just gravitates to him.  Obviously, this hat is super cool but also obviously, I am too old to truly comprehend its amazingness. I know all you ladies are swooning but he is much too young for any of you and besides it appears he is currently taken or "in a relationship" as his facebook status states. Believe me, this is huge news! If this all works out he may just be the first of Kole's brothers to completely disprove he's gay. ;) (Sorry if you are feeling out of the loop here. It is a long running family joke that it seems will never die.   Our family suffers from "homobrophobia" aka the fear that your brother is or will turn out to be gay.  I am sure I am going to end up offending way too many people here.  But what else is there to say when I have so many single brothers-in-law?)


Like just noted, my bros-in-law are single.  Please see the post titled "Party Time" and look for picture of all the boys on the stairs for a preview of the available merchandise. 

End of Birthday Party.  Next event. 

Also this weekend, our ward had our first Primary party of the year.  From my point of view (having never thrown nor been to a primary party before) I think it was a great success!  It was a PJs Bishopric Breakfast.  Everyone showed up in their favorite pajamas and we had breakfast and then we did activities with the acronym "PJs" while members of the bishopric taught us about each subject.  It was really fun. 

I hope no one is too picky about having their kid's faces on the web but I just had to include a couple group pictures because everyone looked so darn cute... I hardly ever see everyone in anything besides church clothes.  (Eve is on the bottom left)

For "P" we learned about how prayer helps us know Jesus Christ and then the kids colored prayer rocks.  My mom was joking with me that whoever originally thought of prayer rocks must have been crazy.  You are supposed to put them on your pillow to remind you to pray but then you end up forgetting to take it off your pillow and when you turn out the lights and crawl into bed you hit your head on the rock.  Then you throw the rock on the floor and when you wake up in the morning and stumble out of bed you stub your toe on the rock.  I suppose it ultimately does serve its purpose because how can you forget to pray after that? 

For "J" we learned about the joy we experience as we come unto Christ and the kids played games involving stuffed animals and sleeping bags. 

For "S" we learned about how the scriptures help us to know Christ and the kids made scripture ribbons to bookmark their scriptures. 

Overall, good times.  It was a really cheap and easy idea if anyone needs to put together a primary party in the future.