Josh's Fight

My little Joshy got in a fight on the bus the other day. Poor kid has the meanest black eye! Sadly it took us until we sat down to dinner for Danny to point it out. (In my defense they were sent directly to their rooms to clean their bedroom so I never noticed it.) The story is: he got some silly bands for his birthday from primary. Apperantly some of them were glow in the dark ones. So, Nate told him to put them under the seat of the bus were it's dark and look at it. Josh followed his brothers advice. Well, when he was coming back up to his seat he must have hit his eye on a metal part of the seat and the end result was this nice shiner. So, it was just a fight with the bus seat and not an actual fight with another kid. But it sounds like a better story. It's been a few days now and his eye is now going to that ugly green color. It really looks so much worse in person. I can only imagine how that must have hurt like the dickens. I would have been crying or swearing when it happened. As I look at these pictures, I realize I need to make my kids an appointment to get their hair done.

This is the next morning. There is still alot of puffiness left.

If it was eye shadow, it would be a great shade of purple.

Nate's 1st Pinewood Derby

March 24th our pack did it's annual pinewood derby. This was Nate's first official race as a cubscout. As a bonus, Josh and Colton were also able to race a car. At the end of the pack's brackets were all finished they opened it up to anyone else to race. Danny had made one for them to participate in. Nate chose a snake for his car and J & C's was a patriotic truck.

Nate's snake car that he painted all himself. Daddy may have help cut it.

This was made for the whole family but we let Josh and Colton take claim of it.

Our 2 cars side by side

Nate getting ready for his first race.

I think this is part of any open race with everyone. And he'd been slaughtering everyone. But this time he put his car up against another brother's car and started talking smack. And because of the smack talk he lost! Silly boy!

Coming down the track, Nate's in the lead.

Waiting for it to finish

And we have a clear winner.

Unfortunately, we think something happened to their car. It ended up with a 50/50 winning streak.

Looks like they are winning this one

A picture of my pretty girl

She kept laying all over Joshy. He'd kept moving away and she'd follow.

And the winner is: Nate. Danny handed out all the awards.

He really is a happy camper!

Danny is helping the boys hold their award. Everyone or rather every kid recieved some type of award.

They boys were more thrilled that it was over and that they got their truck back than about getting an award. 

Birthday Girl

I thought I'd post a few pictures from her birthday celebrations.

Opening up her doll house with her crasy morning hair.

Unwrapping her pillow

Getting cozy with her new pillow and quilo from Grandma and Grandpa

If this wasn't so blurry I'd consider enlarging this one of her. I love her hand on her mouth expression

This one is clear so it's the winner for my favorite. She looks so cute in her new birthday dress.

She's examining her Dora cake.

This is what it looked like after I finished. I tried giving the dress a gathered-ruffled look.

This is what it looks like after fingers have been in the frosting. I love this shot of her little hand grabbing the candle.

Happy 2nd Birthday Audrey

Happy Happy Birthday to our sweet Audrey! She's now 2 years old! We have loved having this sweet crazy girl in our family. She is a wild one for sure but we love her! We have managed to collect quite a few pictures of this girl over the last 2 years and I couldn't decide what to put on here so I put a lot. I tried to kind of keep it chronological but it may not be exact. Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Wearing one of Mommy's dresses from when she was little.

I liked this one of her fat little cheeks-I miss her little fat cheeks

I loved this one because of her fat little thighs

Look at those pouty lips and great big blue eyes

She was just learning to sit up and loving it.

I love her smile and that you can just see those 2 little teeth

Yes she got into the markers and put them straight to her mouth. She is banned from markers and crayons even still because instead of the mouth it's our walls.

She crawled into our cupboard to grab that cookie cutter and was super proud of herself.

Mesmerized by the antlers that her daddy put in front of her.

I love this cute little snow bear.

She was as happy as can be because of the corn on the cob-she loves it.

I love the back profile of her in this dress and this is the first time I was able to put her hair in pig tails.

This is just one of the many messes she has created in 2 years

She found one of the only mud puddles in the dirt and sat herself right down in it.

Again she's getting dirty but completely content playing in the sand

I love the side profile of her playing in the water

Bath time and a funny face

And another weird smile of hers

  

Her scrunched up smiley  face

Her I'm cranky, leave me along face.

Look at me-I'm being super silly face. She insisted on putting 2 swimsuits on.

Us on Sunday afternoons

This is us on a Sunday afternoon. The kids are sitting around the table eating caramel popcorn and watching a movie. We rarely miss America's Funniest Video's-it's on every Sunday at 6. That's one of our Sunday activities since we don't live near family.

And this is where I put a plug in for visitors. Obviously we are coming to Utah in July but I think there is ALOT of confusion out there that the road is a one way street. But luckily it's not! It goes both ways! I know it's a long drive, hello I do have 4 kids that I've traveled with and 2 of them from newborn- one was only 6 weeks old. It can be done. And you can count the travel days as part of your vacay and a bonus for us is that we've had some of our best conversations in the car. You can use that time to discuss so many small and important things. Just come and visit us! There is so much to do and see out here!  

This was a few Sunday's back. Danny tied some thread to Audrey's little fairy doll had it flying in the air. Audrey and Colton thought it was hilarious. She spent a good 10 minutes trying to get it and this is at the end of her efforts. She's a funny girl. But listen and watch Colton in the background cause his laugh his pretty funny too.

Question in a Jar

Today's question was pulled by Josh. It asks: Whom do you most admire? Why?

     I started this post a few days ago and have now had time to think about the question. This one really had me stumped. There are so many people I look up that it just felt wrong to narrow it down to just one and make other people feel bad. And then there is the obvious answers like, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, Thomas S Monson, etc. And I was feeling guilty if I didn't say those persons. So, I finally narrowed it down to listing attributes and the type of people I admire. (You can call me a cheater but I'm ok with that).

     The persons I admire the most are the ones that have had trial after trial and usually they're hard trials at that; and yet they still manage to stay positive and strong. They have a testimony of our Redeemer and no matter what is thrown their way they endure it and come out stronger.
     I admire the parents that have sat by the bedside of their sick even terminally ill child at the hospital. I can't imagine seeing your child with tubes and bandages all over their frail body, suffering, unable to take that pain away. I admire those parents' strength.
      In my opinion, loosing a child is one of the hardest trials a  parent can experience. And to those parents who have had to say goodbye to their child after only a few years on this earth is one of  the most unimaginable this one could do. And yet, countless parents have suffered through this and the ones that are able to still stay positive and testimony still intact are the ones I admire.
     I admire the military families that are constantly being torn apart by deployments. I obviously admire the men and women that are leaving and putting their lives on the line for all of us. But, for me the ones I really admire the women that are left behind to take care of their families and home. They are left to take care of it all and take over the role of Dad and still be mom. And more admiration to the women that manage to still be happy, genuinely happy, they are not moping around, they don't relocate their children from their church and school friends. I admire the women who can handle things in the absence of her husband.
      I admire capable strong women, married or not, that through her trials can look at life and still find good things around her, counts all her blessing, she sees the cup as half full rather than half empty. I admire the women that still thank Heavenly Father for her good life even if she never had the husband she wanted, the baby she wanted, the job she wanted, the mansion she wanted, the luxury car she wanted, the church calling she wanted,  the life she thought she'd live, etc.  But she accepts that her Heavenly Father has had a hand in her life and she's thankful to Him for giving her what she needed rather than wanted. That's who I admire most!

Monday Memories

So first off, this Monday memory doesn't include Colton and Audrey. This was before they were with us. But I have to include a picture of them on here, I just couldn't leave them out. These are 2 random pictures that I took of them with my new camera.

Look at those big beautiful blue eyes. He has the biggest blue eyes I've ever seen! I just love this momma's boy! (Ignore the cookie dough lips)

This is my precious little "momma." She loves her baby dolls. She's giving this one some kisses. She's been so sweet to have in our family.

My Monday memory is our wave running days. We spent hours and hours every week at the lake wave running. We'd go for a few hours in the evening during the week and spend the majority of the day on Saturdays at Willard Bay. Honestly, I don't know how we afforded it since we had just gotten out of the Marine Corps and didn't have a full time job. It was a rather crazy time for us. But I loved those carefree times spent on the water. I loved gliding over the water and seeing what I could get the wave runner up to. It was exhilarating just feeling the wind in my hair. We spent so much time there that even Nate grew to love being on the wave runners and he was only like 3 and 4, I think. I can recall finally getting Mom convinced to ride one but only after Jason and Danny agreed to be on each side of her. And only then did she head in a straight line-one loooooooooong line. Eventually making her way back in the same straight path. (hehehe mom)

All this fun began because Jason bought this "Cadillac" of a waverunner. It was our old reliable one, the only one Mom would get on. Then we decided that "1" just wasn't enough for all of us to share. Then eventually we all pooled some money together and bought 2 more. So eventually we were up to 4 wave runners. Plus we had Aaron's boat to play with. We really did have some fun at Willard Bay. Then when it lost all it's water we had to search else where for our fun. We made our next choice Echo Reservoir and that was an awesome lake too. And on occasion we'd go to Bear Lake. That by far is the best, more beautiful lake but unfortunately too far to boat frequently.

We loved those 2 years of being beach bums. It really was a blast. One day we'd like to be able to let Colton and Audrey experience the same thing. We'd love to one wave runners again and make a trip to Lake Powell with them. Oh, Lake Powell is an awesome place too but that for another Monday Memory. 

Now one to our pictures  of Monday Memories.

Look at my guys at Bear Lake. Nate and Josh are just so little and super blonde from all the sun.

Nathan loved playing in the sand. I loved that this tent kept Nate out of the sun while playing. We definitely got our use out of it.

Me and my Nate on our wave runner. And yes, I did take Nate out on it. I'd even let him steer on occasion. He's always seemed older to me. And look at that beautiful blue lake behind us.

Who wouldn't be happy playing in the sand with a sucker in his hand. Josh did go through many suckers that day because they'd get sandy.

Mommy and Josh. We were just posing here, I didn't take him out on it. I think he'd just come off of a boat ride.

Look at those 2 little boys all dirty and happy as can be. Still can't get over their blonde hair

OK, I included this one of Jason and Tilisa because this was one of the first times Tilisa came with us. They had just barely begun dating. And lets just say Jason was so twitter-patted. We had 4 wave runners and had always relied on him to help us load them all in but that all changed when they started dating. He wouldn't leave her side-he had abandoned us, left us hanging in the air to figure it out on our own. Thanks Jas:) But we're glad Tilisa's in the family.

Danny was cleaning of all the wave runners. It wouldn't have been possible to be out on the water without him. His handy mechanical expertise really saved our butts on a number of occasions. Wave runners are a fickle little machine. You have to handle them with care or else they stop working. And Danny spent countless hours on the shoreline figuring out what was wrong. Thanks babe for being so handy that we could have so much fun on them. 

And finally, the boys also loved being on the boat. Nate was our flag man in this photo.  It was almost guaranteed that one of them would fall asleep on the ride. We loved riding in Uncle Aaron's boat.