where the boys are

maybe not the end, just an addition

2011-11-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Obviously Star Wars and Ninjas have not ended at my house. So I guess I should rephrase my last post to "an addition to Star Wars", not an end. Reed and Blue were ninjas and Beau was a power ranger. For so long, my boys weren't allowed to watch power rangers and I'm not sure why. I take that back, I know why- it's because my mom detested power rangers and refused to let us(my brothers) watch it growing up. I have decided that there are far worse shows out there for my boys to be watching so now they are allowed to watch power rangers. Quinn was still the cutest witch ever, even the second time she put on the costume! Before we went trick or treating we headed over to Chea's house for pictures and pizza and a little bit of whiffle ball. In the past, we have walked neighborhoods that have half acre lots. We've always had a great time but it required so much walking and so much time. So, this year we went to a neighborhood where the houses are closer together. It was perfect. One loop of houses equaled less walking and more candy! The boys had a blast! They get so excited over the cheesiest decorations. I should probably suck it up and hang more decorations like that. I just can't bring myself to do it. I know I'm a selfish mom.

An end to star wars

2011-10-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

In years past, Halloween around our house has been all about Darth Vader, clone troopers, Luke Skywalker, Obi won, and a ninja here and there. Well, I finally have a little girl to play dress up with at Halloween! Good-bye to the dark side and Star Wars, and hello to the land of enchantment and princesses and fairies! Yesterday was our ward trunk or treat and I still didn't have a costume for Quinn. I had bought a mini witch hat that I was going to tweak a little. Well, I put it in the microwave to loosen up the hot glue and within three seconds the innocent little hat burst into angry flames! Whoops. After cleaning up that soggy black mess in my microwave and trying to get rid of the burnt plastic smell wafting around my house, I tried again. This time with no microwave involved. Take a look at the cutest good little witch ever!

Movin' right along

2011-09-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

I just can't get enough of this little baby girl! She is crawling everywhere. She is having a great time exploring every room downstairs. She will go into Colby's office and just stare at all the deer mounts. I haven't decided if she is scared or intrigued. She doesn't cry so I assume it is the latter. She likes to explore the kitchen and will sit at the back door watching the chickens scratch in the backyard. She loves to play with all the plastic bowls and lids, they are probably her favorite toy. She likes to come into my room and mess up all my primary papers. Leaving a big crumpled mess. I even caught her on the second stair the other day! Won't be long before she will be climbing up the stairs and getting into the boys' stuff. Before Quinn was born, we talked with the boys about what they would do if she got into their toys. They all agreed they wouldn't get mad and would let her play with them. We'll see how true this is within the next few months. Her two bottom teeth have come through also. She loves her brothers and will laugh at any silly thing they do. They boys get a kick out of this and they are constantly trying new ways to make her laugh. Yesterday morning Reed said, "I'm so glad Quinn came to our family!" I couldn't agree more!

chicken wings

2011-04-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

To keep our chickens from pooping all over the back porch and in the barn, we (when I say we, I mean Colby) clip their wings so they stay in the pasture. Well, last week we needed to clip the wings on the younger batch chickens. The boys were in charge of chasing, cornering and catching the chickens. It was hilarious to watch as they tiptoed behind the chickens, trying to sneak up on them and then pouncing on them and still missing the chicken. With some help from Colby, all the chickens were caught and clipped.

Blue was the self appointed gate keeper. This allowed him to sit around while Reed and Beau chased the chickens.

The boys have a punching bag in the barn to practice their "moves" on. Sometimes the punching bag gets the last shot, but not on this day...

Reed is a tough guy when it comes to the goats. He likes to push around the babies and ride around on the mama. He looks like on tough cowboy, doesn't he?

american pickers

2011-04-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

We love to watch American Pickers at our house! In fact, our boys love it so much that Reed has decided that when he grows up he wants to be a "picker". Colby has tried to explain to him that it isn't a profession but just a hobby (in hopes of encouraging Reed to aim a little higher). Last month we held a boy scout yard sale (Colby is Scoutmaster) at our house. The week before the big day, the scouts went around our ward picking up donations and then put them in my garage for safe keeping until Saturday. There was so much stuff/crap crammed into my garage! I couldn't believe it. This was a dream come true for my boys. They went picking in the morning before school, after school, and late into the night. Oh the treasures they found- a radio alarm clock, a remote control robot, a gazelle exercise machine, all sorts of '80's vhs tapes, and all sorts of toys! I told them that they were going to have to buy what they wanted just like everyone else. So, on Friday the boys were doing all sorts of jobs for me to earn enough money for all those treasures they just had to have. Bright and early Saturday morning, my boys purchased their finds. By eleven o'clock, we were winding down and there was still a ton of junk! So my boys went to town buying as much as they could for mere pennies. I was so exhausted and overwhelmed to put up a fight with them.

The only picture I took to remember this whole ordeal is of Beau in his first purchase of the morning, a size 18 month-24 month santa suit (nevermind that he is almost 5 yrs old) He loved it and wore it for the next week!

Quinn Ruby Shepherd

2011-04-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that she is 7 weeks old already! Yes, it seems to go by so quickly but not without those individual days (and nights) that seemingly go on without any end in sight. We are so glad that she is part of our family! I am so lucky to have my three boys, and Quinn is just icing on the cake. The boys love to "pet" Quinn's head and it is hilarious to hear their voices go up a few octaves when they say, "Hhhiiiiiii Quinn". They are all so good about feeding Quinn and very persistent in trying to convince her that she wants to suck on a pacifier (she's still on the fence about her pacifier).

When I changed the title of my blog to "Where The Boys Are" I thought my family was complete. I thought I would be a lonely girl in a boys' world. But now, this title is even more fitting. Quinn loves to be in the same room as her brothers and to hear their voices. She starts to coo whenever they look over her and offers big smiles to them. She wants to be where the boys are.

No doubt, Quinn is daddy's little girl.

Macaroni

2010-09-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

At the end of July we let our boys in on a little secret... we're going to have a baby! They were so excited, to the point of telling everyone they knew and didn't know for that matter. We told them at the dinner table. Blue peeked under the table at my belly for confirmation. Thankfully he must have thought my belly was still small because when he came back up from under and table he had a confused look on his face. "No you're not." We explained that the baby wouldn't come until February. Then we discussed possible names. For boys, names like Hans Solo and Luke(no surprise there), and Percy(from Percy Jackson) were on the top of their list. Alex(I'm sure from Wizards of Waverly Place), Hermione(from Harry Potter, of course) and Halley(Reed's school teacher from last year) were suggestions for girl names. But the best name of all came from Beau- Macaroni. If we have a girl, he wants to name her Macaroni.

Well, we took our boys with us today to the ultrasound. It looks like we are having a Macaroni!

Our little slugger

2010-05-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

So the boys have just finished the baseball season. This is the third season Reed has played baseball and I must say that he has improved tremendously thanks to his coach, Eric Lamb (Wayne's brother). Although his skills have grown, his aggressiveness not so much. This comes to a surprise to both Colby and me since we both played sports growing up and are a little competitive (just a little). Nonetheless, we have truly enjoyed watching both Reed and Blue "swing away".

I should also tell you that we have become a fearsome family when it comes to the game of "Slug Bug". Colby does not go easy on the boys when it comes to this game. His rule is that is isn't just one punch to the arm, it is a double hit and then you have to make sure you wipe it off. So technically you are hitting your victim four times. It is usually me against Reed or Colby against Reed. But on occasion, it sure feels good to give Colby a few slugs:). Reed has shown a little bit of passion for the hunt of a bug, a VW bug. A few of our favorite places that have plentiful slug bugs are the Gila Valley. We took our family down to the temple open house and the boys were amazed at how many "really old bugs" could be found down there. Our trip to San Diego was a great place for the game of Slug Bug also.

Back to my first story, Reed's baseball games. During his last game, Reed was playing out in the outfield. His coach was out there also. Halfway through the inning, his coach flagged me out to the outfield. He told me Reed needed me and that he(the coach) couldn't let him walk off the field in the middle of the inning. So I hustled out there, worried that Reed might need to use the restroom, which seems to be a common occurrence at the most inconvenient times. As I get out there, he slugs me with a big grin. "Slug bug yellow" he says. Are you kidding me?! I don't know that he was even paying attention to the game, he was scanning the parking lot for bugs. We have a slugger on our hands, just not a baseball slugger.

Land of Legos

2010-05-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

Colby and I decided to avoid the summer crowds and take our boys to Legoland this past weekend. Not just drive over to California but FLY. Our boys were almost as excited for their first airplane ride as they were to go to Legoland. We figured an hour flight is a good test run to see if any of them get airsick (Blue has a tendency to get carsick very easily). Let me just preface that Legoland is a great place to go only if your children are Lego lovers. Don't expect an over the top experience like Disneyland or amazing rides like Six Flags, set your sights a little lower- like county fair lower, but with Legos. No complaints from my boys, they are at the perfect age for Legoland! The weather was beautiful and lines were nonexistent- a great combination!

The boys are "ready for take off"

Beau thought he was Joe Cool when it came to driving the bumper cars. Here he is kicking back as the rules are discussed. They got their own driver license and now he says he's ready to drive dad's truck.

There is a water attraction at Legoland also. It looked like a lot of fun, but my boys didn't want to spend a whole lot of time there.

The vacation experience started off with their very own rolling carry on luggage. The boys thought this was so cool! In fact, they packed themselves the night before we left without my help. Good thing I took a peek into their bags the next morning 'cause all Beau had was six pairs of underwear and two pairs of pajama bottoms along with one pull-up. This was all stuffed into the small compartment on the outside of the suitcase. Inside the actual suitcase I found six books. That's it.

On Saturday, before we headed back to the airport, we stopped off at the beach. We couldn't have asked for better weather, not that bad weather would have stopped the boys from chasing waves and rolling around in the sand. I guess the good weather was a bonus for me, since all I wanted to do was sit on a towel and soak up the sun.

Don't you just love the expressions on their faces? I'm not sure if they were trying to pose for the camera or just didn't want their pictures taken.

To sum up our trip, the best part of it (from the mouth of our boys) was take off in the airplane (it was as fun the rides at Legoland), picking out just ONE toy from the huge assortment at Legoland, and the swamp meet (swap meet- I forgot to mention we made a stop to the San Diego swap meet which is one of my personal favorite places to go- all that junk lined up for me to dig through).

yes, no, maybe so

2010-05-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

So, I have gone back and forth the last few months trying to decide if I'm ready to commit to blogging again. It's not that my boys are no longer nap takers, mess makers, or future heart breakers- we've just added a bit of scoring soccer goals, making honor roll, puttin' up scout tent poles, and playing a little do-re-mi-fa-sol. As busy as they are, they are loving every minute of it and love living in Queen Creek! Occasionally, I will hear an "I miss Flagstaff" and watch them try to muster up some crocodile tears. It is the funniest when Beau tries to do it, since I don't think he really remembers a whole lot, he just wants to be like his older brothers in every way. Instead of trying to catch up, I'm just gonna start nice and easy with a few good moments.

Beau and I were playing swords today. It was his idea so we played by his rules. With my amazing sword fighting skills, I kept cutting of Beau's limbs, a leg here and a hand there. Well, Beau quickly made a rule that they grow right back so he wouldn't have to hop around on one foot or put a hand behind his back(this was a previous rule when a limb was cut, it had to be hidden). So the next time he got my leg, to avoid hopping on one foot, I tried to claim that it grew back. Beau then informed me of another rule, instant limb growth only happened to kids and not grown ups.

The other day, I was in the car with all three boys and Reed was talking about how cool the title "The Pearl of Great Price" sounded. "It sounds like a really big treasure!" Blue then chimed into the conversation with, "I wonder if Indiana Jones ever searched for it."

trophy wife

2009-10-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

This hunting season I was drawn for an antelope tag. I was a bit surprised since I didn’t even know that I had put in for that hunt. Nonetheless, I was excited for the opportunity of a few days away with Colby.
After dropping off my kids with Chea (thank you so much), I headed to Flagstaff where Colby and I had our last warm meal (or so I thought- we actually camped about 3minutes from a Wendy’s) before stepping into the mysterious world of hunting. By lunchtime of opening day, we had seen a few antelope and blew the stalk (like my hunting lingo?) on a big one. After a nap in the trailer and Wendy’s for lunch- I know, it isn’t how I imagined hunting either, we headed back out. We found “the one” and started to hike towards our target. We kept getting closer and the antelope kept running over the next ridge. I told myself, “I don’t care how big it is, I just hope I get it ‘cause this hiking isn’t really my idea of a good time.” Luckily, with the pressure from another hunter, I got my chance to shoot. Colby was a little worried because the shot was a little far. I wasn’t worried about the distance, I was more worried about the other hunter getting MY antelope. I could see the antelope in my scope and asked if I could pull the trigger. Colby, again a little cautious about the distance, asked if I was sure I was ready. ‘Yep, let me shoot’. One shot and I got him! We had no idea how big it was until we saw it close up. Colby and his friend, Jay, were so excited! Apparently I had shot a pretty big one. I was so excited that I didn’t have to haul the heavy rifle around anymore.
Now, here is the most interesting thing I learned about hunting: trophy pictures. If you have ever experienced a grumpy husband during family pictures; let me tell you, it isn’t the actual picture taking they are grumpy about- it must be the setting. I witnessed these two guys literally rolling in the rocks and cactus just for the perfect picture- it was hilarious! When I looked at the pictures I was bugged that Colby didn’t tell me to smile more or to take off my hat. But then I realized that all of the picture taking wasn’t for me, but for the other trophy in the picture:)

When we got home, we found out that my antelope really is a trophy buck. It scores as the third largest antelope shot by a women according to the Safari Club International. The shot was of a distance of 508 yards, which apparently is pretty far. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Thanks Colby for a great hunting experience.

a visit from the dead

2009-09-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

The 10th anniversary of Chea's 30th birthday was on Tuesday. Brittney and I decided to send her a little singing telegram, except he didn't sing. He just breathed real heavy and gave creepy looks. He did bring her cupcakes though.

mini photo shoot

2009-09-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to take some pictures of my boys for awhile now. But it just never seems like there is a convenient time. Between homework, guitar lessons, and soccer practice I always felt bad about taking up more of the down time. Well, this week I decided I would go for it, knowing that I would only have about ten to fifteen minutes to shoot, definitely a "mini" shoot. Hey, it's better than nothing. While the boys put up a whining front about getting dressed, they were good sports once we got "on location". I snapped away for ten minutes then we loaded up and were done. I think my boys were surprised when I told them we were done and to load up. In fact, they were just warming up to the camera and the surroundings. I guess we'll just have to go back and let them explore a little more- in outfits of my choice, of course.

human jungle gym

2009-08-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

When we went camping with all the Shepherds, Colby's younger brother Tyler always had at least one kid hanging on him. They all thought he was their personal jungle gym, climbing up his back, hanging on his arms or legs- just plain pestering him. But he was such a good sport about it. Thanks Tyler, my boys just love you to death!

camping with the Shepherd clan

2009-08-28T09:01:00.001-07:00

We went camping with all of Colby's family for the first time ever! We had a great time. The boys loved exploring, painting rocks, wiffle ball, riding bikes, and sharing the tire swing with their cousins.

Don't you just love how dirty Maelyn's face is? She looks just like Colby's sister, Emily. If I were to have a daughter I would hope that she would look just like Maelyn & Emily too. Sorry Emily, I didn't get any pictures of you that weekend, except for the chubby bunny contest with the cheeto balls. I'm pretty sure you don't want me to post that:) On second thought I just might...

This was the first time we brought bikes camping. Blue loved it! You could see him whiz past camp every now and then. He had no fear of the hills either, flying down them following his cousin Kaleb who is three years older than him.

I loved to see all the cousins playing together. The best part about the weekend was that they all got along, no fighting or meltdowns.

What would camping be without a game of wiffle ball. Uncle Tyler was so patient with all the kids.

I just love this picture of Randy and his son Nathan:

the ideal camping spot

2009-08-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

My perfect camping spot would include a creek, minimal bugs, an outhouse, and of course a tire swing.

Lucky for me, Colby knows of a place just like this. So we headed up north a few times this summer to relax, explore, and, of course, fish. The boys loved every minute of it. I must say we are finally at a time in our family where it is pleasant to travel with our boys(except for the carsickness). The boys loved to go down to the creek and fish with Colby. They followed Colby where ever he went, even into a few overgrown spots. And then they were so patient just floating their lines down the creek just like their dad. They all got a chance to go fishing with Colby one on one. Beau loved this fishing bag and wouldn't take it off. He fell asleep with it on, rode the tire swing with it on, even in the car- on the way home- he wouldn't take it off.

The tire swing was a huge hit! That is where most of our time was spent. I pushed the boys while Colby just relaxed and watched. ;) I think Colby had the harder job of baiting hooks, then actually catching a fish.

It didn't hurt that we didn't have to sleep on the ground. As new owners of a Jumping Jack, the boys took the opportunity to explore every nook and cranny of it, which didn't take very long since it is simply a tent on a trailer(literally). But we love it!

loving the lake

2009-07-10T17:56:00.000-07:00

Living in Flagstaff, where the weather is beautiful in the summer, we weren't very motivated to head down to the heat and go to the lake. But now that we are back living in the heat, we have found ourselves escaping to the lake quite often. Our boys love more than I ever thought they would, they are pretty cautious about swimming. But I think a combination of swimming lessons and lake trips have loosened them up a bit. They have loosened up so much that they all want to wake board now. In fact, Colby has taught Reed how to get up on the board.

Now he just needs to work on STAYING up. Reed loves it and hasn't gotten discouraged. It is the coolest thing to watch Colby and Reed out there in the water together. The only downside to Colby being out in the water with Reed is that I have to drive the boat. Ya, this is not one of my strong points but Colby is very patient with me and I hope I am getting better. Oh ya, thanks to Chea(who is never without her camera) for documenting this monumental event for me!

This last time we went out, Blue and Beau both wanted to wake board. So Colby set them in between his legs on the board and had them hold onto the rope with him while he wakeboarded. The boys get the biggest grins when they do this. I just wish I would have brought my camera that time. You can be sure I will be bringing it next time.

A few weeks ago we did a weenie roast and FHE at the lake. The boys thought that was so cool to explore a place that we got to by boat. Beau was super intrigued by the fire, well, maybe a little frightened.

It is so funny how when one has to go, the others all of a sudden have to go too.

Happy Barrrrthday Beau!

2009-07-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

Ever since I went to girls camp last summer, Beau has been obsessed with pirates. His third birthday was on June 21st so it seemed fitting to have a pirate birthday party. It was all he could and can talk about still. I can't believe my baby is three! It is amazing how different all three of my boys are. Beau is hilarious! He has a great sense of humor at such a young age. Colby and I are always cracking up with him. Beau does a good job of keeping up with Reed and Blue. He wants to play what they are playing and say what they are saying- which makes me sad because he is growing up too fast!

We had cake with just Reed and Blue on his actual birthday since the party was a couple of days later. He got the crazy teeth at Peter Piper the night before. Reed had a "great idea" of going to peter piper for Beau's birthday as a family. Reed is always wanting to go to peter piper, this time it happened to be for a legitimate reason.

A little spit to help blow out the candle.

What a bunch of scalliwags!

They dug for buried treasure and put it all in their little booty bags.

Josie wore the appropriate attire for the occasion. Too cute!

The cupcakes were scrumptious, and the frosting to die for. I will post the recipes later, if I remember:)

HMA Reunion

2009-07-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

Over the Fourth of July, the Howard Marshall Arnett reunion was held in Orem, UT. Heidi and I had this great idea of caravaning up for this big event. Ya, not so great idea. At least 10 potty stops(could have been more, I just stopped counting) and 15 hours later, our group of 4 adults and 11 kids finally made it to Orem. While the drive was the pits, the reunion was great! The kids had a great time experiencing life in Blythe(where grandpa and grandma arnett lived for many years) and I am so sad I forgot my camera for this. But if you check Lindsay's blog you can see what amazing talent Aunt Candy has with cardboard(it is a talent and possibly a fettish). The So you think you can dance contest was a hit with everyone. Anytime you can watch break dancing, Thriller, syncronized swimming, a bit of the Lawrence Welk show, and modern/interpretive dancing with a man in a leotard you know you are in for a good time! And,finally, what could be more all american than a backyard bbq on the fourth of July? Warning: a lot of pictures ahead...

We stopped for lunch in kanab at a park, and of course, it started to rain once we all got settled on our blankets in the grass. We sought refuge under a ramada at the school.

H.B. has this amazing backyard that was perfect for all of us Arizonans to hang out at. Thanks for letting all of us crash at your place!

My boys took advantage of the sprinklers. Blue may look like he is wearing pants, but they are shorts and are about to fall off. And Beau may look like he isn't wearing any pants at all- well, he's not.

The HB Arnett family kicked off the dance contest with a little bit of break dancin'.

Avery wasn't shy about performing in the SYTYCD show. The only problem was that none of the music was up to her standards. She just kept shaking her head no when a song was turned on.

Thriller, what more can I say?!

Saturday Night Live style of the Lawrence Welk show.

Probably the best synchronized swimming ever, look for them to go on tour!

Reed and Trey found out that you get a prize if you participate, so they decided to sing a song for us.

A high caliber modern/interpretive dance by the Walker family.

Anytime there is a man in a leotard, expect it to be entertaining! Way to go Brig!

The real reason for our celebration this past weekend. Focus on the flag, not the sonic cup:)

Good food the entire weekend, as evident on Paige's face. Thank you Candy for all your planning and hard work that brought us all together this weekend!

easter egg hunt @ grammy's

2009-04-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

This was done on the spur of the moment, like most get togethers are in the Arnett family. The kids had a great time, they don't know the difference if you've been planning an activity for weeks or if it was thrown together just hours before.
The kids had to hold hands as we walked to the grassy area near Grammy's house for the egg hunt.

As we got closer they all got a little excited and picked up the pace.

All the kids examined their loot except Aiden. He was so funny, I would hand him an egg to put in his basket and by the time I handed him another one he had thrown OUT the egg I had just given him. It wasn't until he realized that they had candy in them was he willing to find them.

hit the ground running

2009-04-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

So the first week we were in our new/old house we decided to postpone unpacking and have a little fun not to mention have some work done on the kitchen. Channy and her kids came and stayed with us for their spring break. We went to the Pima Air Museum, the Pinal County Fair, and Grammy's Easter Egg Hunt- just to name a few of the things we did. My boys loved having Trey around to play with.

Haven't we all wanted to feed our younger brother to a shark at one point in our lives?

Beau loved it- wide open spaces where he could run and never stop. He wasn't too happy when I would have to chase him down and get him to join us.

Now on to the county fair. It was perfect! The weather was great, no crowds or creepy people and good company. Chea and her girls, Heidi and her kids, AJ and Brittney and their kids, Channy's kids, and Jackie and Mom and Dad all came along for some good times.

This ride was so funny because for the first swing of the boat Beau was smiling but that was the last smile he gave the rest of the ride. Tana had to hang on tight to him because he kept trying to stand up and get off. Apparently it didn't scar Beau too much though because he just kept riding all the other rides. I only took a few pictures and they were only of the little kids. Chea, on the other hand, took pics of the big kids. Maybe she will find some time to post those. Rumor is that Ty threw up on a ride which in turn made Tana throw up. I'm sure those are the pics everyone is dying to see. Okay, maybe not. But it is kind of a funny story... as long as you weren't on the ride with them.
You know you're getting old when carnival rides are no longer fun for you. Heidi and I had a brilliant idea of joining the teenagers on one of the rides- the one that you go around in a vertical cirle really fast and lots of times. Well, I thought Heidi was going to pass out and I walked away with a major headache. Ya, not so fun. And very disappointing to discover that I'm old!
The afternoon ended not so perfect but not surprisingly. Beau didn't want to leave the rides and was long overdue for a nap. So I was carrying/dragging him. Then Blue didn't win the stuffed animal he wanted at the dart throwing game; so he was crying/sobbing. I probably looked slightly frazzled and I'm sure I thought about never going to another fair again. But I'm over it now and I'm pretty sure we will go again next year.

jedi training

2009-03-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

To confirm the rumor that we are living in Queen Creek now, let me just say WE'RE BA-ACK. We moved last week. What a whirlwind that was for us!

But before I give all the boring details of moving, let's discuss the jedi training held at our house in Flag for Blue's fifth birthday. We started off by making our own droids.

These were decorated icee cups that were later used to hold their candy from the pinata.
Next we trained with light sabers(water noodles). The kids absolutely loved this! They could hit each other and I didn't have to worry about anyone getting hurt because the water noodles were soft.

The kids played "yoda says" and then practiced using their light sabers. After all that training we took a break and had cupcakes with yoda sodas. My cupcakes were a huge FLOP but that didn't matter because the kids just wanted to drink their yoda sodas(lime sherbet in 7-up).

I just love how all of the kids are slurpin' away on their sodas.

We sang happy birthday and Blue jumped the gun and blew out all his candles before we were even done singing.

We ended the party by defeating the death star. It was a soccer ball pinata that I had painted all the white spots grey. My boys thought it was a good looking death star. All the kids got a chance to try to crush the death star with a light saber but the light saber just wasn't strong enough so we ended up using a metal bat to finish it off. It was hilarious to watch some of the kids "use the force" when we would tell them to try to find the death star by using the force. They would hold out their hand and start wandering around.

I can't believe Blue is five years old! We love his spunk, his big heart, and his million dollar smile; we even love his lisp:)!

toot my own horn

2009-03-08T14:58:00.001-07:00

Last summer I took some pictures of a baby boy who was born with club feet. At two weeks old, Baby Tanner had full leg casts put on that he wore for approx. three months. Well he is now a poster child(okay maybe not a poster child but he did make it onto a mailer for an upcoming seminar) for Phoenix Childrens Hospital. And guess whose pictures they used? Take a look for yourself right here.

long weekend

2009-02-17T21:07:00.000-08:00

Heidi and her kids and Tana came to visit this weekend. Since there was no school yesterday we enjoyed them an extra day. Even better, though, was the snow we got last night...because then it was a late start for Reed this morning. He definitely needed the extra sleep after going full speed all weekend long. I do believe Cy wins the award for most die hard snow lover. He didn't even have a pair of snow boots but yet he stayed out in the snow the longest. I sure hope he didn't get frost bite. Josie enjoyed the snow as long as her mom was pulling her on the sled. My boys loved having other people to play with so thanks guys for coming up! Tana and Blue built a snow man (it was started by all the kids but only Tana and Blue persevered). I didn't have any carrots but asparagus works just as good for a nose. Oreo's seemed like a good idea for the eyes. Here are a few pics...

And we can't forget baby Macy. I think the only time she ever left the arms of Tana was when Tana was building the snowman. Gosh, what a baby hog!:)

our aluminum anniversary

2009-02-13T07:26:00.000-08:00

Colby and I have been married for ten years yesterday. Traditionally this is the aluminum/tin anniversary. What kind of gift do you get that is aluminum?
I was telling Colby that I don't FEEL any older than when we got married ten years ago, I sure LOOK alot older. I'm just glad he still thinks I'm beautiful. Love you Colby.

i wuv fronk

2009-02-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

Beau is really into saying he loves everything. He loves Tom & Jerry, he loves comercials about Alvin and the Chipmunks. His latest is Ze Frank, a chef who is dog on the disney channel. It is only a five minute clip but Beau just "wuvs" him. He has taken to cooking up a few things of his own. He totes around this play pot with a pretend corn cob in it. He will open up the pot and say "fwala" (voila).

best exercise ever

2009-02-10T19:19:00.001-08:00

When we first moved to Flagstaff I couldn't figure out why our neighbors would go outside while it was still snowing and shovel their driveways. They would do this two to three times a day. Now that I am a seasoned "Flagger", let me enlighten those who don't know either. It is to keep up with what is coming down. If you wait till the next day to shovel your driveway for the first time, you are looking at at least 2-3 feet of snow. But if you shovel at intervals it isn't so hard. Well, yesterday afternoon I went out, while it was still snowing, and started to shovel my driveway. I had already paid two guys earlier in the morning to shovel it. They did an excellent job and by the afternoon I was regretting not having them come again. So while I was just shoveling two small lines for my tires to get through, a friend of a friend shows up. Amber and Chad had company this weekend and due to the snow had to stay over on Monday. I'm so glad they did because that was who showed up to help me shovel my driveway. Thank you Zack!

This morning my back was sore, my legs were sore, and my arms were sore. And I didn't even shovel my driveway by myself. I was dreading going and shoveling AGAIN since it had snowed most of the night. I mean, come on, just because it was great exercise doesn't mean I wanted to exercise again. Well, I opened my garage and to my surprise, my driveway was already shoveled! Once again, I'm so glad that Rachel and Zack were stranded here in Flagstaff. What a relief! I was/and still am so sore!

My front walkway got shoveled too! I usually never do that because I am so exhausted after finishing the driveway. Thanks again!

snow days

2009-02-10T18:51:00.001-08:00

This is what was going on all day yesterday at our house:

I didn't think it was ever going to stop. Since we got dumped on so bad, today was another snow day. This afternoon my boys ventured outside. Of course, it takes a good 15 minutes to put on the snow suits, jackets, boots, and gloves. Then there is the adjusting of the snow pants over the boots to prevent the snow getting into the boots and adjusting the gloves over the jackets so the snow doesn't get into the sleeves- times that by three. Whew! That is alot of work, but worth it when I see how much fun my boys are having out there.

Reed started to dig himself a little snow cave on our driveway.

{This is our front walk way. The snow hadn't completely melted from our last storm over a month ago, so this is snow on top of a big mound of ice.}

Blue and Beau love to eat the snow. I do too, as long as it is fresh:)

I couldn't find Beau's real gloves so he was wearing those cloth-like gloves. He never complained even though the snow stuck to them like velcro.

The snow was so deep that Beau kept getting stuck up to his waist. He wanted to keep up with Reed and Blue so bad that he would try to contort the top half of his body to see where the other boys were headed so that when I got him out he would chase after them.

no thanks

2009-02-09T13:44:00.000-08:00

So for the past few months I have been trying to prep Beau for potty training. I will ask him if he wants to sit on the toilet like a big boy, and he always replies,"no thanks". I ask him if he wants to wear big boy underwear like Reed and Blue; again his reply- no thanks. I guess I should be glad that he is so polite about it, but come on, I just wish he would show some sort of interest in getting rid of his diapers. No such luck. Well, after reading Sara's blog and her experience potty training Aiden, I was a little more motivated to try. Today, being a snow day in all, I thought would be a perfect day to start. To say that Beau was not interested in putting on underwear would be a understatement. He went into hysterics when I tried to put a pair of underwear on.

{The pictures are so blurry because he wouldn't stop rolling around. You would have thought he had ants in his pants}

I finally relented. We made a compromise: no underwear and no diaper. He let put on pants without anything. The problem in this is that he is so skinny and has no butt so his pants just slip right off of him. Even if he doesn't wear a diaper, how am I to potty train him if he won't sit on the "potty"? So I decided for right now I will respect his "no thanks".

packed and ready to go

2009-02-09T13:31:00.000-08:00

Last week our realtor came with a few other realtors to look at our house. I spent the previous day cleaning the house and asked Blue to help me (Reed was at school). Blue's idea of helping was to put all of his star wars guys into three of his back packs so that he would be ready to move when someone bought our house. He has carried these three back packs with all around the house, up and down the stairs all last week. It's pretty amusing since they probably weigh as much as him if not more.

Occasionally he will pull out all the guys and set up a "battle". I have found them set up in the living room, on the stairs- a guy was set up on each stair, in my room, at the kitchen table. He is prepared if we move out of our house at a moments notice. I guess it's kinda like his own little survival/72 hour kit.

something is wrong in this picture

2009-02-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

There is definitely something wrong in this picture. Can you guess what it is? No, it's not the mounds of snow still sitting in our front yard. I came home from Farmington on Sunday and the first thing that caught my eye was... yep, you guessed it, the realtor's sign. We are officially selling our house here in Flagstaff so we can be together on a daily basis and not just a weekend family. I have been pretty selfish lately, trying to figure out a way to stay here in Flagstaff. I don't want to move because I love my house, I have a great ward, and great friends. But I realized that I am the only one in our family who doesn't want to move. The boys are ecstatic to move closer to cousins, grammy and papa, and grandma. Colby wants to be there obviously because that is where he works. So I need to give up my selfishness and be grateful that I have a wonderful family and my husband has a job. I'm still allowed to feel a little sad though, right?

road trip

2009-02-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

This past weekend my boys and I headed over to Farmington New Mexico to visit Channy. Our normal road trips consist of visits down to the valley where it is MUCH warmer than here. So when we arrived in Farmington and the weather was pretty comparable to Flag I was sorely disappointed. If I'm gonna go somewhere, I want it to be warmer than where I came from(at least in the winter). Although the temperature was in the low 50's, this did not stop the kids from playing outside. Beau wanted to jump on their "trapline" and Shani was nice enough to join him on it. Even though it was late in the afternoon Beau did not want his jacket on. His blood must not be as thin as mine. I wear a hoodie all day long, even when I'm inside the house.

On Saturday afternoon, Trey decided he was gonna dig a swimming pool on the side of their house. All the kids got involved in the digging and then the water hose was turned on. Again, keep in mind of the 50 degree weather. Trey is in shorts and a t-shirt and Beau can't help himself- he just keeps stomping in the puddles of mud. Of course Reed steered clear of it all and kept clean.

And we can't forget about Princess Paige. She rules the house, doing whatever she pleases. Look how cute/naughty she is in her pettiskirt!

100th day of school

2009-01-26T19:48:00.000-08:00

Reed's school is celebrating the 100th day of school on Wednesday. So for homework he needed to count out 100 of something/anything and glue it to a piece of paper. He decided he wanted glue his 100 somethings to the shape of a dog. I looked around our house until I could find 100 of anything and came up with googily eyes. Here is his finished project:

He is such a perfectionist. He was very particular in his method of placing each eye in the perfect spot. This process was a bit time consuming, but worth it in the end to see how proud of himself he was when he finished.

On a side note:
For the past two weeks Reed has brought home the "gold medal" award in his reading group. To receive this you need to read 60 words a minute and Reed surpassed that by reading 90 words a minute! He is a reading fool! Way to go Reed!

easily amused

2009-01-26T19:15:00.000-08:00

This morning I went to the dollar store with Beau and Blue. We got out of there for under $5 which is highly unusual. The dollar store is one of those stores that I usually go overboard, simply because I think I am saving money. I mean come on- everything is ONLY one dollar. But when you buy 20+ items it certainly adds up. So I went looking for Chinese takeout boxes and they didn't have any so I let Blue and Beau pick out one thing. Blue picked out a rubber baseball attached to an elastic string that you velcro to your wrist and Beau picked out a bucket of foam shapes. Best two dollars I ever spent! They played with these things ALL DAY LONG! Beau dumped all his foamies into one of his "treasure boxes" (yes, he is still obsessed with all things pirates) and then carried it around with him.

Blue ran around the house with this ball chasing after him. He thought it was hilarious. He did this so much that he got winded. It was probably the most exercise he has gotten in a while since it is so cold here and we don't get outside much.

(In this picture Blue is actually chasing Reed, who is letting the ball chase him)

a goal not written is only a wish

2009-01-23T14:09:00.000-08:00

I had big plans this year, big plans. I was gonna start exercising, crazy I know. I was gonna work out a better bedtime routine for my boys. I was gonna be a better, more efficient, and a more regular blogger. I even wrote these down to make them official goals. Yaaa, none of them have happened. I guess a goal doesn't magically happen once it is written down. I guess I actually have to put some sort of effort into making it happen. Huh, maybe I should have made my list of goals a little shorter(these were just a few from the top of my list). So here we are, the third week of January, and I'm still looking for the motivation to make some of my goals habits.

During these hard-pressed times, I am grateful that Colby has a job. Unfortunately it happens to be in Queen Creek. And we still live in Flagstaff. So we (actually, Colby) have been living the commuting life...AGAIN. I'd like to think I learned a few things from the last time we did this. If you don't remember let me refresh your memory. We lived in Queen Creek while Colby worked in Prescott for the entire length of my pregnancy with Beau. Good times, well, actually not so good. Anywho, back to the present. One important thing I learned is to keep Colby up to date with all the little happenings that go on every day. Of course a blog is a great way to do this. And, I know, I haven't been taking advantage of it. So here goes, I'm trying to back in the saddle again. This past Wednesday the boys skipped school and we went down to the valley to spend the day with Colby as a family. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. This was a huge hit with all the boys. Then we headed over to the Arizona Science Center. I don't feel too bad pulling the boys out of school because they probably learned more there than they would have at school that day. I think my boys were ecstatic about being outside in great weather.

Beau thought he was pretty tough chasing the birds until the birds started to fly.

A little bit of tug-o-war going on.

Beau and Colby won.

Wheelchair races. Poor Blue, he was pushing so hard that his entire body would come off the seat.

The hit of the day was building dams in the sand then watching the current of the water make it's way through. To Beau it was just playing in the sand and water.

We also saw a movie about black holes in the state of the art planetarium. Before it even started Beau was asking where the popcorn was- a sure sign that we see ALOT of movies at the theaters:)

Casey's Gifts

2008-12-19T20:13:00.000-08:00

‘Twas a year of hard times, a Merry Christmas in trouble
Yet, what happened that night is truly memorable.
Thanks to Casey at the age of eight years,
Did much more than just calm mom and dad’s fears.
Presents for everyone, this little boy gave
But who took him shopping? No one could say.
He searched through the house up, down, all around
Until all his presents for each of us were found.
To dad from Casey, what could it be?
A can of Chili Laredo straight from our pantry.
“Why, thank you Casey, how did you guess?”
“I knew you would like it, you eat it more than the rest.”
All of his presents were, in theme, very similar-
Items we would most often use, eat or wear.
A beautiful lesson, that night Casey taught:
Be grateful for what you’ve already got.
This Christmas season try to remember
The value of Casey’s simple sweet gesture.

I was so surprised when I opened my gift from Casey that year. It was a dress, in fact, my favorite dress at the time. I thought I had lost it because I couldn't find it for about a month. When I told Casey thanks and that it was my favorite dress, he replied, I know. You wear it all the time. I remember my mom's present was the grocery ads from back in November some time. This was a perfect gift for her because she loved to look at all the grocery ads and make lists of what was on sale and where. I also remember how proud Casey was that night, knowing that all of us would no doubt love our gifts. He had put some real thought into each of them. But I am most grateful for what he taught. Even though we may have gone without at times, we still had so much to be thankful for. He reminded us of all the little things we have in our lives that we take for granted and not just the intangible things such as our health, the gospel, our testimonies, or the love we share for one another but real things we use everyday. Thank you Casey.

not your average gift exchange

2008-12-16T18:43:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we hosted an adult Christmas party. We ate dinner and then did a gift exchange. But this was a gift exchange with a twist. The giver was to pick out a toy that reflected the receiver's personality, profession, or hobbies. It was fun to see what everyone came up with. After the party, we then donated the toys to Salvation Army's toy drive. It was a perfect combination of having a good time and helping those in need this season.

first snow day of the school year

2008-12-16T18:36:00.000-08:00

Today was a snow day! hooray! It snowed a little yesterday and then didn't stop all night long and continued to snow most of today. Yesterday, though, while Reed was at school Blue went out in the snow with the specific purpose of making snow angels.

His angels looked perfectly angelic. I fiddled with it in photoshop and now look at his angel:

Like I said... it was perfect.

new kind of marshmallow

2008-12-16T18:29:00.000-08:00

My boys have been enjoying hot chocolate a lot lately. Usually they ask for mini marshmallows to go in it. The other day I was out of mini marshmallows which did not please Beau. He took matters into his own hands and improvised. I had just gone grocery shopping and left the tub of blueberries sitting on the counter. Bad move on my part...

He didn't just put two or three in there. He dumped the entire tub of blueberries into his hot chocolate. This happened on the same day that I was baking a chocolate cake. The cake batter was in the cake pan sitting on the counter while the oven was preheating. I ran upstairs to put my makeup on. When I came back down, he was covered up to his elbows in chocolate cake batter and the counter was covered with it also. Apparently Beau thought it made great paint for finger painting. He knew he was in trouble because the minute I came around the corner, before I even said anything, he burst into tears. I don't have a picture of this because, as funny as it is now, it was NOT funny while it was happening.

deja vu

2008-12-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

The past FOUR years Reed has asked for a puppy for Christmas. As it turns out we have not lived in a house that would accommodate a puppy(it would have to live outside). And once again Reed is asking for a puppy. But take a look at what he has to say to Santa:

I know it is hard to read in the picture so let me decipher...

Dear Santa
I woud like for chrismas is: a puppy as you can see
a bild your own lightsaber
bongos
a lego thing
thank you but if not thats o.k.
That is all.

Poor kid. He is so used to disappointment from the big guy in a red suit. I just hope he isn't scarred when he gets older.

date night

2008-12-14T16:31:00.000-08:00

Friday night I went on a date...
with Blue. He had asked me earlier in the week why I always went on dates with dad. I asked him if he wanted to go and he jumped at the chance. We were going to go get presents for Reed and Beau and then I told him we could eat where ever he wanted. We left the house at 5:pm and he fell asleep before we even got to our first store. Luckily, he woke up. When I asked him where he wanted to eat I fully expected him to say McDonald's. Nope. Pizza at the food court at Target. While I ordered, he chose what table we were gonna sit at. This was a serious job for him. He finally found the perfect table with two chairs, he was pretty proud. After Target, he suggested we go to Dairy Queen and get a banana split- because he never tasted a banana split before(his words). Never mind the fact that it was 30 degrees outside, we went to Dairy Queen and ordered a banana split. When we got it, he wanted to know where the cherry was. I told him I wasn't sure if they put cherries on their banana splits. He seemed pretty disappointed about that. But not too disappointed. He chowed down on the banana split, favoring the chocolate sauce side. We had a great time together and Reed is eagerly anticipating his date this coming week.

rock on!

2008-12-14T16:10:00.000-08:00

Reed turned seven on December 9th(this past Tuesday). He decided to have a rock climbing party. We sent out rocks from our yard with a little tag attached for the invitaion. Reed spent a good half hour looking for six rocks. They had to be just right for the invitaions. We went to the aquaplex here in Flag, which has this great rock wall. Eleven kids, including siblings, came to the party. I think everyone had a great time. All of them tried to climb the wall at least once, and a few of them hardly stopped climbing the entire time. In fact, one kid kept his harness on while we sang happy birthday and then he shoved a cupcake in his mouth and went back to climbing. Reed tried the wall a couple of times and did great, especially since he is terrified of heights.

Blue was so cute, they had to pull a scale out to make sure he weighed enough to climb. He is a whole 34 pounds and the cut off is 30 pounds. He was pretty proud of himself.

For Reed's cake we just did cupcakes with brown frosting and then I ordered those big jelly beans that look like rocks. Not to tasty, but the kids thought it looked cool. The hit of the party, though, was in the party favor bags. I ordered these splat balls off of oriental trading. When you throw them they litterally splat out and stick to the floor. But when you pull them off the turn back into the form of a ball. They were sooo AWESOME according to the kids. I highly recommend them for any little boys party.
Now I will get a little sappy and sentimental. I can't believe Reed is seven and will be baptized in a year! I couldn't ask for a better kid. He is a great example to his little brothers and is so thoughtful. He is so creative, always making books and drawing pictures to go with the story(we go through A LOT of paper and staples in our house). I love that he will still hold my hand whenever I walk him to his classroom(which isn't very often 'cause then I would have to chase Beau down). He has such a tenderheart and is so in tune with the spririt. We are so blessed to have him in our family.

school pictures

2008-12-03T21:27:00.000-08:00

You gotta love school pictures. They make you look like someone totally different that what you really look like, this can be good or most of the time, bad. Reed got his school pictures awhile back. Now isn't this the most natural looking pose? I probably should have made him do retakes, but then I would've had to surrender these. And I know this will be great material to pull out when he's older and he thinks he's a big shot.

woggles

2008-12-03T21:19:00.000-08:00

Lately Beau has been wearing "woggles" around the house. He really likes to wear them when he watches tv. It is pretty funny to see him zone out on the couch with them on. He must think they are some sort of weapon because whenever he puts them on he also has to have a sword or a gun to hold.

visitors of the first Christmas night

2008-12-03T21:08:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving weekend we put up our Christmas decorations. There are a couple of Nativities around the house. My boys, especially Beau, are very fond of them. The camel's head is about to fall of because "someone" tried to bite it off. The donkey is missing a leg but somehow that does not deter Beau from playing with them. Beau has loaded up all of the wise men in his fisher price airplane and taken them on a trip around our house. The latest, though, are the visitors that (in my boys' minds) came the first Christmas night.

too strong

2008-12-02T16:18:00.000-08:00

In order to get my boys to eat all their lunch or dinner, I use the old saying Don't you want to grow big and strong? You have to eat your dinner if your going be strong. The other day when I was trying to convince Blue to finish his lunch I used this line on him. And quick as a whit, he came back with, I don't want to be big and strong because then I might hurt somebody. Nice try, Blue.

school's out

2008-11-22T21:51:00.000-08:00

Blue is done with preschool until after Christmas. Neither one of us are happy about it. Blue keeps telling me that school can't be over because he hasn't learned the letter "Z" yet. I'm a little worried about occupying his time 24/7 again. This past week he had a Thanksgiving program. I didn't bring the video camera because it is currently on a "hunt of a lifetime" with Colby:).
Let me give you a brief summary: the kids re-enacted the first Thanksgiving. Blue was an Indian and taught the pilgrims how to plant corn and hunt with bow and arrows. After the play the kids gave a grand bow.

After the play, a few songs were sung. Blue's favorite goes:
The turkey is a funny bird.
His head goes wobble, wobble.
And all he know is just one word-
Gobble, gobble, gobble.

whodunnit?

2008-11-20T21:35:00.000-08:00

We have this turkey made of a pumpkin sitting on our front porch. Almost everyday I find that the "feathers" have been taken out and it has been roughed up a bit. My stinkin' boys, always roughing things up. When I ask them about it, they claim they haven't touched it. Well, today I discovered that they weren't lying to me. I found nibble marks all over the pumpkin, and a few big chunks missing. I guess squirrels like the taste of pumpkins.

the age of innocence

2008-11-19T18:04:00.000-08:00

This morning I gave Reed $10 to put on his account for hot lunches at school. I didn't put it in an envelope or anything like that, I just told him to give it to the lunch lady. When he got home from school he told me he didn't have to pay for lunch. I was a little concerned because I know he doesn't have any money on his account. He said that they didn't ask for money and he didn't offer the $10 to them. So I asked him if he still had the money and suddenly he was really quiet. No. I asked him what he did with the money. I gave it to Dustin. I asked him WHY he gave ten dollars to Dustin. Because he said he wanted it. ARRGGHH!! Of course, he gave it to Dustin simply because he said he wanted it. I gotta nip this in the bud or Reed is gonna have so many "friends" asking for money. I guess I should have started earlier on teaching him the value of money. What do ya think?

myspace

2008-11-12T12:04:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not talking about THAT myspace. I'm talking about my space, the space that I used to call my junk room. The space that I used to avoid at all costs because it was so messy. The space that I took my computer from and moved downstairs to the kitchen table so I could work better. Ya, I'm talking about my space. This past weekend, while Brittney & AJ and Heidi and all their kids came to visit, Brittney helped me whip my junk room into shape. This girl has skills! She did an amazing job! Thank you so much. And thanks to AJ for watching all the kids for us so we could run around town. What a good sport.

I'm not showing a before picture because it is embarrassing, not to mention disgusting.

first snow of the season

2008-11-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

We had a house full of family this past weekend. What a blast! Cy was waiting all weekend long for it to snow, and it finally did when they were packing up to leave Sunday afternoon. While I didn't get any pictures of them, Cy, Reed, and Blue played in the snow unitl past dark. Cy was in heaven because of the snow and my boys were in heaven because Cy was here to play. I did manage, however, to snap a few of Avery, Jackson, and Josie. The little ones didn't stay out too long because it was FREEZING outside! FYI: these are pics from when it first started to snow and didn't stick. But about a half an hour later it came down harder and stuck(that is the snow the older boys played in for so long).

warning: birthday suits ahead!

2008-11-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

When we built our house, I kinda thought a fireplace in the master bedroom was unnecessary. But this winter there are two reasons I'm glad we have it. Number one: the first weekend of really cold weather, you know the kind of weather that causes you to turn on your heater, we used our fireplace out of necessity. Our central heating wasn't working so we made little beds on the floor for our boys, shut the bedroom door to keep the heat in, and turned on the fireplace. We had a little camp out in our room.
Number two: My boys hate getting out of the bathtub because it is so cold. So I will let them turn on our fireplace in the master so they can warm up a bit after bath time. The other day I walked in to this:

Physical activity can also warm you up pretty fast:)

the elves

2008-11-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

Tonight during dinner, Blue asked if the elves were coming. Colby and I didn't quite understand what he meant so we tried to clarify by asking him if he meant Santa Claus and his elves. No. Then we thought maybe he was talking about elk because Colby just got back from hunting. No. Finally he said You know, those two guys who come over and eat with us. Ohhh, the elders. Ya. I'm sure missionaries have been called a lot of names but this is probably a new one for them.

okay, I lied

2008-11-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

I thought I would squeeze in another photo shoot with my boys. It is not easy shooting your own kids, especially Beau. He thought we were playing a game. He just kept running off then I would chase him and drag him back to where Reed and Blue were. Then the minute I turned my back, he was off and running. Oh well, I guess he is ONLY two.

Melchizedek Priesthood

2008-11-03T21:27:00.000-08:00

Tyler, Colby's youngest brother, received the Melchizedek Priesthood on Sunday. All over Colby's siblings showed up for it. We had a great time eating and visiting afterwards. Way to go Tyler, we are so proud of you!

trick or treating

2008-11-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

Halloween did not disappoint this year. Every year, without fail, there is drama involved with costumes. This year it was Beau. He wore his pirate garb around the house for the last two weeks, but of course, on Halloween night he refused to wear any of it. Blue was Luke. Simple enough, since he was Luke last year also(he might be slightly obsessed with Star Wars). Reed, at the last minute, decided to be Alvin from Alvin and the chipmunks. This was the best costume ever! He told me Halloween mornig that he could hardly sleep because he was so excited to wear his costume-and did I mention how easy it was to put together?!

Our trick or treating gang included Heidi and her kids, Brittney and AJ and their kids, Frances and baby Merrick(trick or treating is hard work for little babies, as you can see he fell alseep), and ever so helpful Tana. Beau fell asleep on the way over and I wasn't about to wake him up(he had no nap that day). So Colby took one for the team and headed back to watch a litttle TV while Beau slept. We had a great time. Thanks Brittney for hosting our Halloween night!

queen bee

2008-10-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

Blue had a halloween party at preschool today. I volunteered to help out. While I love halloween, I normally don't dress up. But last night I got a bee in my bonnet and came up with a costume for me. I went as a queen bee. Notice the beehive and little bumblebees buzzing around it.

Blue's party was so organized and the kids loved it! They ate the cutest cupcakes that my friend Amber made, went trick or treating with the coolest little candy buckets(super easy-plastic black cups with googlely eyes all over it), and sang the funnest halloween songs. Way to go Miss Juliette!

Mr. Jack-O-Lantern

2008-10-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

The other night the boys and I headed over to the Woolf's for some pizza and pumpkins. We ate the pizza and carved the pumpkins. I only bought one pumpkin for my boys to share. I did this because I figured I would be the one who had to clean out the pumpkins. Reed and Blue stuck their hands in the pumpkin but weren't to gung ho one the idea of having to clean it out. Luckily, Kason was willing to help us out with the task. Once the inside was clean, we moved on to our face. I put Blue in charge of the eyes, Reed in charge of the mouth and I would do the nose. Blue wanted angry eyes so we put eyebrows on our jack-o-lantern. Reed wanted a silly mouth so we added a mustache. We didn't do too shabby, if I do say so myself.

I'm no weatherman

2008-10-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so maybe I jumped the gun a couple of weeks ago when I thought we wouldn't get any more warm weather. This past week has been perfect! I took the boys out for, probably, the last photo shoot with warm weather this year.

learning the art of borrowing money

2008-10-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

For those of you who follow my blog may remember that back in September when we went to Lake Powell the boys caught a horny toad. We kept it for a couple of weeks, but because it eats ants and those are hard to come by up here, we took it down to Chea's house and let it go. I didn't realize how attached Reed and Blue had become to their pet until I told them my plan to let it go. Both of them were devastated and started sobbing. I explained that it was better to let him go than to keep him and have him die. They seemed to be okay with that explanation. Now bringing you back to the present day...
Last weekend Colby took ALL of the boys scouting with him to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Not only did he take all of them for the day but he also took them over night! Woo hoo for me. I got to do whatever I wanted without any little rugrats around. I didn't really do anything exciting but it was a great break! Thank you Colby.
Sorry I got a little side tracked from my first story, let me get back on track. While they were up at Jacob Lake(where they stayed) they were checking out the little store there and Blue happened to find this oversized ceramic horny toad. He begged Colby to get it for them but Colby told him that it was too expensive and he wasn't spending that much money on a fake horny toad. They walked around the store for a bit and found a few other souvenirs. When they were checking out Blue asked Colby if he could borrow ten dollars. Colby wanted to know what for and Blue, with a sneaky little smile, said he was gonna buy that horny toad. Even the cashier couldn't help but laugh. Needless to say we now have a pet pretend horny toad.
How about that? Blue is already learning how to weasel money out of his parents.

gone are the days...

2008-10-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

of barefeet in the grass. It's happened. It is fall. The trees have changed colors and most have lost their leaves. The wind has picked up and is now a biting cold force. We have packed away our shorts and flip flops and brought out our hoodies and flannel pajamas. The cold weather doesn't seem to bother my boys though. Thank heaven! They still wanna play outside and can't figure out why I make them put on real shoes and a hoodie. I tell them it's 'cause I'm a mean mom.

vampire for your blood sugar

2008-10-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

Monday night we had the Woolf family over for dinner. We made these cute vampire bats afterwards. My boys have been begging me for the last week, wanting to know when we were going to make something for Halloween. Of course, once they finished making them, they gobbled up the little vampires almost before I could get pictures of them. Not more than fifteen minutes later, they wanted to know what else they could make. While I did have another project for them, I told them it would have to be for another day. We need to pace ourselves with these projects, for the sake of our blood sugar.

the next michelangelo

2008-10-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is the wall in my front entry. Thank heavens for the magic eraser!

slide rock

2008-10-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

On Monday we took a family drive down to slide rock. It is less than 20 miles away but on a very winding road. Nevertheless, it didn't take long to get there, which is always a good thing with young 'uns in the car. I envisioned a photo shoot with my kids at the state park where there is a small apple orchard and some amazing old buildings(see Chea's blog for proof of this). Instead we stop at the trout farm, not as appealing for photo opportunities but certainly more appealing to three little boys. I was definitely outnumbered. My boys loved it! I think Reed and Blue might have enjoyed getting the fish food out of the candy machine more than actually feeding the fish.

Beau wanted to get as close to the edge of the water as he could, actually he probably wanted to get into the water but Colby hung onto his jacket the entire time(this did not please Beau).

The boys discovered that by throwing in all of your quarter's worth of food at once you can see alot more fish than just tossing in a few at a time.

After $4's worth of fish food,that is sixteen trips to the fish food/candy machine, it was time to go. Definitely cheap entertainment.

daddy duty

2008-10-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

Whenever Colby is in charge of the boys, he will always do something fun- something the requires effort on an adult's part-something that I usually dread doing because of the effort required. This past weekend I attended a baptism, while Colby entertained the boys. He set up a tent in the front yard and put a sleeping bag in there. He could have stopped there and the boys would have been pleased as pie, but no, he told them to go get some books and he would read to them while hanging out in the tent! Definitely an overachiever dad! I love him for it!

Notice the hoodies, it was freezing on Saturday and the wind was atrocious!

b is for beau

2008-10-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

Poor Beau! He definitely gets the shaft being the youngest. Our morning routine consists of dropping Reed off to school and then dropping Blue off to school. After they are both gone, Beau just whines to pick them back up. Once, while dropping off Blue, Beau ran into the preschool room and was playing with all the toys. I started walking to my car, not even realizing that I didn't have Beau with me until the teacher asked if I was missing something. For a second I had no idea what she was talking about. Then it dawned on me that Beau was still inside. Much to his dismay, I had to wrestle him out of the preschool room. He kept calling for Blue to help him out- as if preschool was where he belonged and I was in the wrong for trying to take him home. Beau loves his older brothers and wants to do anything they do. He chases after them on their bikes since he can't figure out the pedals yet. He gets just as excites about Star Wars as the other two do. Beau calls it "saw waas". I'm glad that Reed and Blue are nice to him and let him play with them-sometimes:)

eight is enough

2008-10-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

okay, if Channy and Chea can do it, so can I. Eight is way more than enough info to give out but here goes anyway.
8 shows I love to watch:
1.psych
2.monk
3.burn notice
4.bones
5.paula's party
6.what not to wear
7.backyardigans(my kids like this show too, but even if they didn't it is pretty cute)
8.magic school bus(with my kids

8 things that happened yesterday
1.visit teach
2.did laundry
3.took reed to piano lessons
4.took dinner to a family in the ward
5.reed's soccer game
6.reed threw the BIGGEST fit at his soccer game
7.became more frustrated, furious, and embarrassed than I have EVER been
8.sent the boys to bed early(really early)

8 favorite places to eat
1.IN'n'OUT
2.Outback
3.Sakura(sushi)
4.Gyros(sushi)
5.PF Changs
6.Little Caesars(i like the breadsticks and colby likes the pizza)
8.Cinnabon

8 things I look forward to
1.spring
2.summer
3.warmer weather(I'm not a big fan of winter here in Flag)
4.wearing cute jackets/coats(the only bonus to cold weather)
5.getting a new camera
6.no more peeing the bed-my boys, not me, then I wouldn't have to do so much laundry
7.selling our house in queen creek
8.going to thrift stores

8 things on my wish list
1.grass in my backyard
2.a bigger pressure canner
3.get rid of Beau's pacifier
4.a personal chef
5.better organizational skills
6.a clean house
8.world peace

I am usually a dead end to other chain things, soooo, true to fashion, I will not tag anyone else.

a few of my favs

2008-10-02T21:33:00.001-07:00

What a trip! Thanks Chea!

where to begin

2008-10-02T21:17:00.001-07:00

I hate it when I don't blog for awhile because then I feel like I can't ever catch up to the present. Here is the beginning of my feeble attempt. Let's begin with the beach! It has been a couple of years since my boys have been to the beach and to my surprise they loved it. Well, actually, I knew they would love the sand but I had no idea that they would dig the water (figuratively speaking).

Reed discovered the second day that salt water and cuts don't mix. He fell earlier in the day and scraped his knee and then went in the water. This is how he felt afterwards:

I was able to coax him out of his "shell" with a rock hunt, all the rocks he could possibly find for his rock collection.

Beau liked to practice his sweet moves on the boogie board while at the hotel, but once we got to the beach he really wasn't that interested in the water as much as he was the sand.

Of course, Blue was his easy going self, loving the water and the sand equally.

a boo-boo for beau-beau

2008-09-24T18:37:00.001-07:00

Today I heard a thud in the boys' room. Beau was still on the top bunk(thank heavens) but I'm guessing he fell and hit the railing. I'm surprised but grateful that it didn't split. Tough kid. He didn't cry for very long and was back playing with in a few minutes.

breathtaking

2008-09-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

this past weekend we went on an evening picnic with some friends. The views were breathtaking.

day trip

2008-09-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

Colby had some business to do near Show Low on Saturday, so me and the boys came along for the ride. While we waited in the car, I practiced my self shot in the visor mirror(boredom calls for desparate measures)

and the boys sat patiently watching a movie.

After Colby was done, we grabbed some lunch and headed to a park. It is always a smart move to ask one of the locals where a good park is. We found this amazing park off the beaten path. It had its own little lake and everything.

Reed came with us, but I guess he just didn't stand still long enough for me to get a decent shot of him. Short but sweet was this trip.

life's little pleasures

2008-09-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

We got a little rain today. Beau loves to stand under the eaves of the house and let it drip/drop all over him.

fashion statement

2008-09-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

Blue is pretty headstrong when it comes to his clothing. Today was the second time he has tried to wear his argyle sunday socks to school. The first time it happened I made him change them to regular white socks. This time I decided not to suppress his personality and let him wear them. Along with his cut off sweats, once again, he's making a statement. I'm just not sure it is about fashion.

no nap day

2008-09-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I wanted to take pictures of my boys. I loaded them up and headed down to Lake Mary. Since Beau and Blue didn't take naps earlier they were asleep before I could get to the spot I wanted to take pics. Reed was willing to take solo pics as long as there was a treat afterwards.

Beau decided to wake up and join us towards the end.

Reed said he always wanted to take a picture of him playing the air guitar. So here it is.

And this is what Blue did the entire time.

the latest and the greatest

2008-09-11T19:48:00.001-07:00

I found this amazing chair on craigslist! Now if I could just find some sweet little GIRLS willing to take pictures with it 'cause heaven knows that my boys don't do pink.

lake powell

2008-09-11T19:17:00.001-07:00

You would think that when you go to the lake, especially Lake Powell, most of your time would be spent in the water. Not so, if you are one of my boys. This past weekend we stayed on a houseboat with three other families. All of the other kids spent their days in the water but not my boys. Even though we(me and the boys-Colby, on the other hand, was hardly OUT of the water) hardly spent any time in the water, we had a blast! What do you do if you are not swimming or knee-boarding or tubing? Take a look:

{playing in the sand}

{climbing the rocks looking for "clams"} {playing soccer} {catching horny toads and then catching ants to feed the horny toad} The slide off the back of the boat was the extent of Reed's experience in the H2O. He loved it and would go down it time and time again.
Between the four families that came there was nine children and the oldest was six years old. A lot of life jacket wearing and sunscreening was going on for sure! To the Hughes, the Rhotons, and the Whitings: Thanks for a great vacation!

brotherly love

2008-09-09T21:55:00.001-07:00

it finally clicked

2008-09-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Chea came up to take our family pictures. Colby claims that we have these taken at least every three months. I beg to differ, it has been a year since we did official family pictures. I know how much he dreads doing them but I had big plans this time and I prepped him about a month in advance. I wanted him to take our couch from our living room and transport it to the photo shoot. Now, normally this would be asking a bit much but to top it off... it was raining off and on the day we did our pictures. I thought for sure Colby would put an end to my fairy tale photo shoot. But, to my surprise, he loaded the couch and unloaded the couch, then had to load it AGAIN during the shoot because it started raining then unloaded AGAIN because it stopped raining. He did this all without complaining. I mentioned to him that I really appreciated all that he was doing for these pictures. And guess what he said to me?! "It's important to me because I know it's important to you." It finally clicked in his head that "when mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy".

what happened to the standard size light bulb?

2008-09-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

We have been in our house for eight months now and light bulbs are starting to burn out right and left. I bought a pack of new light bulbs in hopes of seeing the light again but no luck because it seems that each light fixture requires a different size light bulb. My bathrooms need to be clear fat bulbs, my ceiling fans are clear but super skinny and the ceiling fans are skinny but not as skinny as downstairs. Geez, as it turns out, the pack of replacement bulbs I bought won't work anywhere in my house. Go figure.

too cool for school

2008-09-02T21:15:00.001-07:00

Today was Blue's first day of preschool this year. He was very excited, so excited that he wore his pajamas to school. Well, not really his pajamas but they sure look casual enough to sleep in. Apparently he is too cool to dress nice for school. His cutoff sweats and crocs(I personally am not a huge fan of them, but they were a good deal at goodwill and since we couldn't find any other slip-on shoes this morning, this is what he decided on) combined with his "too cool" stance says it all.

coconino county fair

2008-08-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the Coconino County Fair. I really wanted to check it out, I have fond memories of the State Fair and the Maricopa County Fair. I love the scary rides, although I haven't ridden one probably since high school. And how can anyone resist fair food- anything deep fried and on a stick?!
Yesterday I had to pick up Reed early from school because his head hurt and he had a temperature. All afternoon he complained that his head hurt (but not bad enough to lay down and get some rest). This morning he woke up claiming his head hurt again. I told him to eat some breakfast to see if this helped. It didn't help too much for him. I sent him to lay on his bed and told him when he felt better that I would take him to school. After checking on him a few times, I could see that he had no intentions of going to school. I pulled out my bag o' tricks. I told him that it was too bad that he wasn't feeling well, because I wanted to take him and his brothers to the county fair after school(not that it mattered if he went to school-we were going to the fair whether he went or not, I just wanted to see if he really did feel sick). Before I could turn to leave the room, his head miraculously felt better. After taking him to school a little late, I felt bad wondering if he really was sick and if I was going to have to come back and pick him up once the Motrin he took at breakfast wore off. Lucky for me, this wasn't the case. He gets home early on Fridays and as soon as he was off the bus, we were off to pick up our friends for a great afternoon at the fair.

(left to right) Tate, Blue, Livia, Reed, Beau(he had about as much fun as one two year old could handle within the first hour)

Reed chose a frozen lemonade over ice cream. When all we found was nonfat frozen yogurt, I'm glad he had lemonade so he could share with me.

Blue didn't seem to notice a difference between ice cream and nonfat frozen yogurt.

Beau would have fed the ducks and chickens the entire time if I would have let him. Even when he was all out of food he just stuck his hand in the cage. I thought for sure a rooster was gonna peck his hand right off.

I was a little nervous about letting the boys ride a not-so-kiddie ride. I had visions of the operator having to stop the ride to let my boys off because they were scared. Apparently, I worry too much.

remember when

2008-08-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

Remember when getting high meant swinging at the playground? I think the swings have always been my favorite part of the playground. I love to see how high I can get, it is thrilling for me. I remember seeing how far I could jump off the swings, and even sometimes flipping backwords on the swings. My boys enjoy it as much as I do, especially since I am doing all the work pushing them. The look on their faces always tell me if it is tickling their tummies. I have to say the one of the things I love about Flag is their AMAZING parks. Tons of grass everywhere, tall trees, and great playground equipment. Last night we grabbed a Little Caesars pizza (can't go wrong with a $5 pizza for dinner) and went to a park. Talk about a perfect evening. Perfect weather, perfect playground, and perfect company- my little family.

On a side note: There is a skate/bike park next to the playground. We went to watch some of the "sweet" tricks for a little bit. Reed was amazed that these teenage boys could ride their bikes and do tricks without training wheels. Doncha just love a kid like that?

restroom at the park

2008-08-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

This morning I took Blue and Beau to a park near our house.

Don't mind the chocolate covering their faces. We went to the grocery store just before and since they were good, well mostly good, they got donuts!
It has the old school metal slides and they were kinda hot so we didn't stay too long. But Blue noticed a sign for the restrooms and he asked what the sign meant. I told him that it means there are restrooms at the park.

Since we don't use "proper" language at our house (a restroom is called a bathroom), Blue thought I meant a "rest" room. He studied the sign for a little bit and then said, "Whew, mom I think I need a rest. Man, was he disappointed when he realized what a restroom really was!

blind hunting

2008-08-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had my first experience blind hunting, not hunting without seeing the animals but hunting without the animals seeing me. Here are a few things I observed while sitting for 13 HOURS waiting for a decent deer to come within range:

*Bring a hoodie even if your outfitter/husband says you won't need one. I should have known better, Colby is NEVER cold.

*Bring toilet paper. Who doesn't remember the toilet paper...a man.

*Bring more than two books. You'll have time to finish them all.

*Snacking/eating is kept to a minimum. The animals might smells the food, no matter what it is. Every time I would eat something Colby would spray down the blind with some sort of de-smelling spray.

*Drinking is kept to a minimum also. This may cause the need to go the bathroom, which in my case would not be fun since there was no tp.

*Talking is only aloud if you whisper and even then it must be kept to a minimum.

*No ipods allowed. How are you supposed to hear the animals coming? Duh!

Now even though it sounds like I might have had a better time sticking hot pokers in my eyes, I am going to give it another shot. Mostly because I am competitive and I know if given a chance, I a pretty good shot with my bow. Oh, and I get spend quality time with the one I love, minus the quality.

in case of emergency

2008-08-21T21:47:00.000-07:00

Today I was reworking our 72 hour kits. I am in charge of a booth for RS next week all about 72 hour kits. I pulled out our kits that I assembled about two years ago, yes it has been two years since I have even thought about them. I will post what I have done later. Anyway, Blue was asking what all the food was for. I told him in case of an emergency, we would have food to eat. He asked, "Like if something happened to our house?" "Possibly", I said. A couple of minutes later Blue wanted to know when we were going to move into our tree house. I don't know where he got that idea but I guess that was his solution in case of an emergency. In fact, I discovered that he had added a few more items to his 72 hour backpack, such as his alphabet flash cards, his best lego ship creation, and he wanted to put in Kit Fitso(his latest star wars purchase-see entry from August 15). Did I mention that we don't even have a tree house? I guess we better get on that.

help!

2008-08-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

( first day of school)

We are finishing up our first week of school and already I feel like Angry Mom. Reed dilly-dally's the morning away and has no sense of urgency to get ready for school. So I end up becoming Angry Mom and using my angry voice to get him to pick up the pace. Because he is so tender-hearted, he usually ends up with tears in his eyes at least two to three times a morning. I'm not sure what to do. It's not like our routine changes every morning. I just feel so bad dropping him off at school after I have yelled at him all morning long. I usually pull over right before he gets out of the car and let him know that I love him and I think he is a great kid but that we need to work on our morning routine. But nothing has changed all week. HELP!

This is another picture from the first day of school. Beau wanted to get in the action also.

star wars, the clone wars

2008-08-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

In honor of opening day of The Clone Wars, I am going to give you yet another glimpse of how obsessed my boys are with Star Wars. If Colby were in town today, you can bet your bottom dollar that he would have taken all the boys to this movie. But since he is not in town today, he promised them that we would go for FHE on Monday night. I am trying to contain my excitement. Now for story time. Yesterday while shopping once again at Target, for the supplies on Reed's class list, we happened to peruse the aisles of the toys also. Blue found a Star Wars galactic hero that we don't have, which is actually a surprise to me since I could swear that we have them all if not doubles of some of them. Anyway, he handled the let down of not purchasing the galactic hero on that shopping trip pretty well. But when we got home, he wouldn't stop talking about how worried he was that there wouldn't be any left the next time we went to Target. So I told him if he would do some jobs around the house he could earn his own money for it. He was all over that. He helped me clean the loft, the theater room, and his room. When it was time to go to bed, he started to complain and I told him if he didn't obey he wouldn't get the Star Wars toy. He looked at me surprised and said, "You didn't tell me I had to obey also". As if obeying was just one of the terms for the toy and not an everyday thing. His expression told me that if I had told him earlier about this term, he might not have wanted the toy as badly. It took him literally an hour and a half to finally fall asleep. He was so worked up about going to Target right when it opened to get this toy. This morning he comes in and wakes me up at 6:am. "Guess what today is?" He was still so excited. He was ready to go by 6:30 and totally disappointed that we wouldn't be leaving until 8:00. Finally in Target he practically ran to the toy section and was so relieved to find that there was still two packages left. He has played with it all day long and even took a bath in the afternoon with it... I guess just to see how the galactic hero would handle the water.

first of first

2008-08-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Reed's first day of first grade. I took pictures but cannot find my cord to download them. So you will just have to imagine the innocence and excitement that he was. He woke up at 6:30 and was ready by 7:00, which was so unlike last year. He even made his own pb&j sandwich for his lunch. We walked him to his new classroom but the minute he saw one of his old friends from kindergarten it was hello friends and good-bye family. I so glad that he enjoys school and has made some good friends there. After school he told me that his first grade teacher was just as nice as his kindergarten teacher. Who knew that he would be so lucky to have TWO nice teachers :)

procrastination in a small town...

2008-08-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

is not a good thing. For the past month Reed and Blue have been begging for the new Star Wars, The Clone Wars backpack at Target. I have held them at bay, telling them every time we went to Target that we would get it the NEXT time we went to Target. Well, tonight(the night before the first day of school up here) we finally took a trip to Target specifically for this backpack. I think part of my procrastination happened because I was trying to decide if I was going to have to buy TWO of the very exact same backpacks or if I could get away with just buying one and making them share it. You know, Reed would take it to school for one week then it would be Blue's turn the next week. But Heidi informed me that I was being too cheap and not to mention mean! So, to avoid being cheap and mean, I finally gave in to making a purchase of twin backpacks. Before heading to the back to school section I fed my boys a very healthy dinner of pizza hut pizza and icees in the food court. I started to get a little nervous as I saw how many other mothers with school-aged children were procrastinating just like me. I kept thinking, "Please, please have at least one more Star Wars backpack for my boys." Yaaa, no such luck. There was an abundance of Spiderman, Incredible Hulk, and Speed Racer backpacks but no Star Wars anywhere. Thank heavens my boys took it really well. There were no melt downs coming from my shopping cart. I just hope I don't forget to order it online now (you know, it might just get in the way of all my blogging time).

a new beau

2008-08-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today I got my first bow, not Beau, but bow- as in bow and arrow. This afternoon the whole family went down to the archery shop here in town. That was quite an experience! With all three boys chasing each other around the store, touching everything, and nearly knocking over tri-pods and buckets of arrows, Colby thought it would be a good idea to just put them back in the car and let them watch a movie while I got all "set up". Good idea. I gave Reed my cell phone and set it to Colby's number and told him that if there were any problems with Beau to press the green button and that would call Dad's cell phone. He was as proud as a peacock holding that cell phone. Now back in the store, I must say I was a little disappointed when I couldn't pull back a regular size bow. I ended up with a youth bow. I'm such a wimp! At least Reed will be able to use it...probably in just a couple of years.
Tonight, Colby and I got a babysitter and headed to the outdoor archery range. After a couple of trial arrows, I got the hang of it. I think the competitive side in me came out, which I almost forgot that I even had a competitive side. It was shining brightly tonight though. I was determined to hit each and every target in the "kill zone". I did pretty good, if I do say so myself. Archery season opens next weekend. We'll see if my one day of practice is going to be enough...Now if I can just get a babysitter for opening day...Chea? Mom?

mourning

2008-08-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

Today we lost a dear member of our family. He never left Blue's side. He came to church with Blue, he slept with Blue, and even bathed with Blue. Earlier today,Blue came down the stairs hysterical. After spending about ten minutes calming him down, he told me how this tragic accident happened. Blue went to the bathroom and was holding Yoda in his hand when he flushed (apparently, he even took a leak with Blue). Yoda slipped out of Blue's hand and into the swirling water. Blue couldn't react fast enough to save Yoda. It has been a pretty grim day for Blue.

ghetto pool

2008-07-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Friday night while we were still in the valley we took a trip down to good ol' Florence for a party at the town pool with Heidi's ward. I had flashbacks to Arrowhead pool in Chandler, as a kid I remember having stake activities at Arrowhead pool. No slides, no zero entry, no diving board, just lots of 3 feet water. Needless to say, my boys didn't know any different since we have yet to go to a pool of any sort here in Flag. Fletcher showed up in his wranglers as did a couple of other men in their small town ward. I guess they didn't know that jeans can cause a lot of drag when you are swimming. Heidi didn't wear a swim suit either. She figured Dakota and Cy are old enough to take care of themselves in the water and wouldn't need to keep an eye on them. And who are we kidding, she doesn't really keep an eye on Josie also. Luckily, I brought Tana and Taryn with me just to supervise the younger kiddos. Reed loves the water! He does fairly well swimming under water and wishes he could swim like Taryn(she has lovely lines and can do all of the strokes). He was so cute wearing goggles:

Blue fell asleep on the drive down to Florence and when we got to the pool he was content sitting on the sidelines with Fletcher. He slowly worked his way closer to the water. First testing the waters by splashing with his hands.

When he decided that he wanted to get into the water, he started to strip down to his birthday suit in front of all the ward members who were eating dinner. I caught him just in time, and wrapped a towel around him while he finished putting on his swimsuit. Once in the water, he didn't want to go under he just clung tightly to whoever's neck he could get.

Beau spent most of his time tossing rings into the pool. Tossing isn't the right word, more like throwing some heat into the water. He nailed just a couple of people in the head.

Josie had no fear of the water and had a little modesty problem.

Heidi made it the entire night with only one attempt made to push her into the water. Which, unfortunately for her, was successful. It didn't take much for me to convince Fletcher to push her in. In fact, his one word response to my request was, "Gladly".

I'm melting, I'm melting

2008-07-27T22:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend I decided to take a trip down to the valley. Yep, you read it right. I drove from the beautiful weather of Flag to the sweltering sticky scorching heat of Queen Creek. I must be going crazy. Anyway, I was a little worried about how my boys would handle the heat. I must say, as long as there was some sort of water activity they were just fine. Tana was so kind as to buy a few slip'n'slides for the boys to play on. It took a few practice runs for Reed to get the hang of it:

First he went on his knees.

Then, he tried it out on his backside.

Finally, he got the hang of it.

Blue was more of a RUN, STOP, and DROP kinda a guy:

All Beau wanted to do was try to drink the water:

Notice his tongue hanging out even while he is running.

fresh fruit

2008-07-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

I love fresh fruit in the summer! I can remember going to pick peaches with my mom. I would search for the perfect peach, pick it, and then turn it over and find that a bird had already feasted on the other half. Argggh, it was so frustrating! Now, I like to keep fresh fruit on hand for my boys to eat. But I'm not sure that it was such a great idea to keep the bowl of fruit on the kitchen table...

Just like a bird, Beau has taken a bite out of every piece of fruit in the bowl! Arggh, now that's frustrating!

crawdads, and cousins, and bears, oh my

2008-07-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the Busby Family Reunion/camping trip. A good time was had by all! Reed and Blue enjoyed catching crawdads with their cousin Trey.

A lot of the older kids were getting in the water fully clothed and Beau followed suit.

Once he fell in, we stripped him of his clothes and he was in heaven playing in the lake!

This year my mom, aka Grammy, set up shop for the kids with candy and toys. It was a huge hit! Blue, Reed, and Trey got matching mini light sabers(at least that is what they thought they were).

Blue would not let his out of his sight.
It was fun to catch up with some of my cousins I don't see that often, reminiscing about when we were kids at this reunion. I loved hanging out with my brothers and sisters and sister in law, definitely alot of sarcasm in the air all weekend long.

I especially loved the extra help with my boys.

Thanks to Casey, Pierce, and my nieces and nephews for all your help!
And we had celebrities such as Bob Ross and Gladys perform in our skit!

The only downside to the trip was the two bears roaming the campsite. But this downside has an upside: The first night we were there one of the bears was caught in a trap set out near the garbage dumpster!

Can you see him?

Happy Birthday Jackie

2008-07-11T15:38:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Jackie's birthday. Reed made a sign for her. He put it on the front door so when she came home from work she would see it.

I thought he did a great job with all the bright colors, the balloons, and the presents. Way to go Reed! We also made a cake for her. I saw the other day that Fry's grocery store sells the whipped topping that they put on their cakes. So I decided to give it a shot. Then I used a cake recipe from Bakerella. Check it out! It was to die for! My boys decorated the cake with mini M&M's (just blue and green since those are Jackie's favorite colors). Even though we only put one candle on the cake, Jackie had plenty of help blowing it out from my boys!

We are so glad she came to stay with us for the summer. Every morning, night, and even at mealtime, in their prayers, my boys mention how grateful they are that she is having a sleepover for the summer.

orange creamsicles

2008-07-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Who else would be able to make eating popsicles into a photo shoot? Thanks Chea!

good food & good company= good times

2008-07-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

Our fourth of July weekend was full of good food and good company. Chea and Wayne came up at the last minute. They brought Pierce and Taryn. The rest of their girls were at girls camp. While we did not participate in any of the festivities for the fourth(the parade or the fireworks/laser show-it was all sold out), the boys still had a blast! They love it when Taryn comes to play. They play school, store, and whatever else Taryn can organize (she loves to organize and clean- so unlike her mother, I know). Playing on the trampoline with Pierce was definitely a highlight for my boys also.

We ate to our hearts content all weekend long. Steak and chicken from the grill and nothing is better the "hand-shucked" corn.

Then there was a lot of rest & relaxation:

pre-fourth festivities

2008-07-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday Colby took Reed and Blue to a Diamondbacks game in Phoenix. He had an extra ticket so he also invited Papa. My boys were so excited! They have never been to a professional baseball game before. A good time was had by all- apparently it was a pretty memorable game for the players also. It was so good that my dad got a little teary-eyed. He can't help it, baseball is his passion even still.

Blue enjoyed it so much that he slept through the entire game until the seventh inning (no surprise there since he is my snoozer). Reed said his favorite part of the game was the "kiss camera"- when the big screen spotlights two people sitting next to each other and they must kiss in front of the entire crowd.

I was pretty excited also because I only had one kid for a day! Oh the things I was going to do! NOT! Beau wanted me to play with him and he wouldn't leave my side all day! Three kids is way easier than one! I had hopes of reading Stephanie Meyer's The Host. While I did get about halfway through, I was hoping to finish it while they were gone. I did finish it the next day ( I was a terrible host to Chea and Wayne in the morning, sorry guys!). I did not love it. It took me the first 200 pages just to get interested. The plot was so familiar to her Twilight series. However, I was glad that it had an ending, I'm not sure I would have read another book if it turned out to be a series. If you have read it, what did you think?