Monster Jam!

Lincoln (and the rest of the boys for that matter), loves "Monster Trucks." Any time we see a really big truck, semi, even just a normal truck, he calls out "Mom, a MONSTER TRUCK!" We just go with it as he is SO CUTE! So, when Lincoln saw the commercial for the upcoming "Monster Jam," he BEGGED Josh to go. Josh straight away went and bought the tickets for a surprise for the boys.
What a great Dad! The boys were beyond excited when they found out that we were going to see the monster trucks in action. We entered the building and the SOUND of the trucks was shaking the building. We were promptly handed ear plugs.
Look at that smile. We saw lots of smiles through the night.


I have to admit that I was pretty sold on the whole thing. When Josh told me that he had gotten the tickets I rolled my eyes. It really wasn't ANYTHING I had ever had on my list of things that I wanted to do in my life. Well, Josh talked me into it and I was converted within about 5 seconds. It was really a lot fun!
More smiles (very cute ones I might add).
All I can say is that the night was pretty funny with us all having ear plugs in. We had to yell at each other to be heard and the boys kept forgetting that they even had ear plugs in. It was pretty crazy.
These drivers really are nuts. They were bouncing all over the place in these crazy trucks.

In boy heaven. I actually have never seen so many little boys in one area. There were millions. It must have been the place to be.
This was another highlight. These were snowmobiles on wheels. They were going off jumps and ending up going down the huge dirt mountain they had in the arena. Like if they messed up even a little they were DEAD! One guy even did a backflip on his snowmobile type thing.





Oh my goodness this was a fun night. Josh is pretty much da bomb (do the cool kids still say that...obviously I am not one of them), for taking us to this little show. We sure love that dad of ours. Da bomb, you hear me? Da bomb.

Not "Just a Mom"

Today I was told that I am lucky that I get to stay home from work and “play all day.”  Wow.  The funny thing is that this is not the first time I have had something similar said to me.  Why in the world do people feel that they have the right to say such rude things?  I would never DREAM of saying something similar to that to someone who works.  I absolutely respect women who work and are mothers at the same time.  I know they have a hard job, but don’t belittle me because YOU FEEL my life is easier than yours.  I REFUSE to judge someone who works or someone who stays home from work.  Why?  BECAUSE IT IS NOT MY PLACE!  I don’t know why they have made the choices they have in their life.  I have never been inside their head and seen what they see, felt what they feel, in short I couldn’t understand someone’s choices unless I WAS that person.    

                I take my job as a mother very seriously.  I WORK very hard at it.  Sure it is playing action figures, baking cookies, making meals, cleaning up a mess, the same mess for the fourth time…that day.  My job (yes I consider it a job and I take it as serious as any person in the work force) is monotonous, wonderful, miserable, trying, and at times heavenly.  And playing action figures would be FUN if I were between the ages of 2 and 10.  I am not however, I am a 33 year old woman who is sitting on the floor being bashed in the hand by a Batman figure held by her 5 year old.  I do it because that is part of my job, to make my kids happy, to develop their imaginations.  They are my “boss”.  I read the same story over and over and over because I like that story?  Nope, because my “boss” wants to hear it for the gazillionth time.  This to me is as difficult to do day in and day out as were the reports and documents that I wrote as a legal secretary.  Not harder or easier, different.   I care every bit about my work as anyone else.  I take my “job” seriously.  I spend hours reading books on parenting, planning out things for my family to do and teaching.

                I know that there are stresses in the work place that I don’t have.  I am grateful for that.  There are also perks about working that I also don’t have.  Sometimes I wish I did.  But really, I am not trying to say my choice is better or worse than anyone else’s choice.  It is different, and it is mine.  And for some reason it makes me a target for snide condescending remarks.  I am a mother.  It is a hard and very rewarding job.  So let us remember, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. 

Hunter Registers For Kindergarten

I vividly remember when I registered to go to Kindergarten. I was so excited to finally start school, only to be told that we were just registering and that I was going to have to wait clear until September for me to actually go to school. I had the same experience with Hunter the other day when we went to get him registered for Kindergarten. Now if all goes according to plan, he will not be starting at this particular school, but I didn't want him to miss out on the registration experience, and I guess you never know, we may be here still.
This is my third Kindergarten registration in three years (last year with Lincoln and the year before with Palmer), so you would think that I am an old pro at this, but it is still so hard for me. The whole time I kept saying "Hunter, you don't really want to go to Kindergarten do you?" Well, he does...with all of his 5 year old heart. He CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO KINDERGARTEN! It makes me sad. Not that he isn't already going to preschool 3 times a week, but I guess it is just that he is old enough to be going to the "big school" now.
They were nice enough to let me go down and show him where he would be going to school. Not that he hasn't seen this hall before, quite a few times actually, but this time he was seeing it through new eyes. Not the eyes of "my brother will be going here," but the eyes of "this is where I will be going!" He was giddy and excited and then I dropped the bomb that it wouldn't be fore quite a while that he was going to be attending school here. He was pretty disappointed.
Luckily not disappointed enough that the Artic Circle playland and some ice cream couldn't fix it.
I am constantly amazed by Hunter's attitude.  Even though he was the only kid on the playland for most of our time there, he had a great time.  He is always happy and can always make the most of any situation.
And he got a huge ice cream cone all to himself. Now if that can't fix just about anything, I don't know what can :)!
Oh my goodness how I love this kid. He is so much fun and says the funniest cutest things all day long. I will miss not having as much time with him, but he is so ready to be with the big kids now that I will be excited to see what life brings to him.

Speaking at "New Beginnings"

I had the opportunity to speak at my ward's "New Beginnings" last week. It is funny that as much as I have spoken, I have never spoken in my own ward. It was such a wonderful experience. We don't have many youth in our ward, but the three we do have are so awesome.

We are So Lucky!

We aren't very good at getting the mail on time at our house. A few days after Valentines Day I got the mail and there were three letters addressed to the boys. I can't even tell you how excited that they were to get their own cards in the mail just for them.
Each of them got their very own Valentine from Grandma Happy and Grandpa. It was a good day for them.
Little things really do mean so much to kids (and adults :)

I also need to mention that they each got their very own crisp dollar bill. They were so excited!
We are lucky to have great grandparents. Thanks Mom and Dad!

T.V. and the Lack Thereof...

We did it it. We finally limited our kids T.V. watching and have been sticking to it. I used to let them watch T.V. for 2 hours a day. Two hours slowly crept to three hours and we went down hill from there. It is so hard to limit (especially the Wii), because it keeps them busy on sometimes boring days. Especially since I usually have one boy home in the morning (with McKay and me), and one in the afternoon. That makes for some bored boys. Well, there are a lot of reasons that we finally cut them off from T.V. none of which they agree with :) So now they each have 1 hour of screen time a day. So many good things have come from it all ready. The boys are using their imaginations again, they are playing games with each other, doing crafts, coloring, play dough, etc. etc. It has been wonderful!
One windy day I had to bring the sleds in so they wouldn't blow away. Hunter lined them up and used them as a track. It kept him occupied for a long time and it kept McKay totally entertained.
McKay LOVES to open and close the drawer. I can't keep him out of it. I am so worried that it is going to smash his little fingers. He is so intrigued by it.

Hunter's imagination is so wonderful and I am grateful that he is now USING it! It is tough, but I am going to keep enforcing our new 1 hour policy.

Valentine's Day/Josh's 31st Birthday

I woke up to this on Valentine's day this year. It was a fun thing to see first thing in the morning. Josh is so sweet and thoughtful. I made the boys strawberry waffles for their Valentine's breakfast. We usually do crepes, but my blender is being repaired (I sent it in to be fixed in NOVEMBER!) it was still fun, and the boys (Palmer excluded), go crazy for strawberries.
I also woke up to this...not as pleasant as the roses. McKay was teething with a vengeance and was pretty miserable. I think it is funny that his shirt says "Love Patrol". He definitely wasn't giving out love.
The boys were all excited to go to school and give their teachers the gifts that I had made for them and to hand out their Valentines. I didn't get pictures of Lincoln or Palmer's teachers with the gifts as there is a lot more going on in grade school.
Lincoln got to have this special lunch and I sent some special things in Palmer's lunch at school as well.
As it is one of Josh's responsibilities to make sure birthdays are celebrated at work he felt that as a birthday present to himself, he wouldn't worry about celebrating it (luckily someone found out and bought brownies for him). I decided that he had to do SOMETHING so I went and took him out to lunch. He works right by a Kneaders so we headed there for his birthday lunch.
McKay by this time had calmed down a bit and fell in love with Kneaders bread.
Hunter got these little lions in his kid's meal (one was McKay's they were nice enough to give him), and was totally bugged that they were pink. He was quickly consoled however when he realized what a stud he would look like if he wore them like this. He was right. And he continued to wear them all day and tried to wear them to school like that the next day...he was vetoed.

As one of my Valentine surprises I had a balloon waiting for Josh right when he walked in the door. There was a note attached that told him to look through the house for more balloons telling him some of the reasons that I love him.
They were all over the place, in some pretty crazy places. The kids were as into it as he was and they were looking EVERYWHERE.

In the end he found them all (with a little help from the boys).
Then it was time for presents! I also made him his favorite dinner-Lasagna (the boys call it basagna, I hope they never stop!)
Josh is a big fan of Lance Armstrong, so I got him some "Live Strong" stuff.
Later the boys got some gifts from their secret admirers (Josh and me :)


Cake and ice cream! We have gone the easy route with the candles. We do a section with three candles and another with one candle.

Josh was teasing me that he wanted a purple cake for his birthday. Done. He thought it was funny. We overheard the boys talking about how many "girlie" valentines they had gotten that day and Josh all of the sudden yelled out "That is what Valentine's Day is all about boys. Pink, hearts and girlie, believe me I know." And I guess he would know that. I didn't go with the heart cake this year, I thought a purple heart would have been a little much.
We got a Valentine from Hunter in the mail that he sent at preschool. The boys all had a ball at their school Valentine's party. I sure like Valentines day. I am thinking I might get some actual decorations next year (but can't we change the date to like the 24th or something so I don't have to take them down two weeks later!)