Sweet Sweet Girls

Yesterday the girls came in from walking home off the bus and were so excited. They told me the neighbors were outside pulling their weeds from their front yard (it was very overgrown and a sore spot for Jim). They told me they asked Debra and Bill if they could help and they said yes. I fed them a snack and sent them to help. Before they left though, I got them each a flat head screwdriver (thanks Nana) and instructed them on how to get a root out. I told them that if they were going to help, they needed to get the roots so that the neighbors didn't have to go back and do it again later.

I sent them off, running in their excitement to help others. When they got home, they were so happy they got to help. I asked how the screwdrivers worked. They said that Debra said, "that was sure nice of your mom to take the time to show you how to use those". Then Gracey said that Debra even put her hand shovel down and borrowed Gracey's screwdriver for some of the tough weeds she couldn't get to roots too. I was so happy the girls could help.

It so touched my heart and I was so happy to be able to call Jim and tell him how the girls want to get in there and get things done. I commented to Jim that it's not normal for kids to come home from school and want to clean or weed. Most kids want to watch TV, ride bikes and play. Not mine. I told them to put it in their activity day books as a goal they accomplished for service.

They are in the spirit of service and I love it! Gracey said, "maybe next week we can help them clean their house!" I told her they can help me with that, she giggled.

Debra also told them that she always gets a kick out of hearing them argue over who gets to punch in the code to the garage when they get home from school. She said she can hear them and how sweet it is. Megan and Gracey then told me that they have a plan for next time they walk home. Gracey said, "Mom, when we walk by their house next week, we are going to pretend to argue over who gets to clean the toilet"! I laughed. They do argue over who gets to do that becasue they both love to do it. You would think it would be the opposite, but not with my sweet sweet girls. They blow me away and set such a great example for me to follow.

I love my kids and their sweet sweet spirits.

Reb's School Carnival

At the end of the carnival the girls showed up with their faces painted. It was a surprise! I must say that I was thrilled they chose to paint their faces and NOT get their hair sprayed with paint and glitter. Phew. I do not even want to know how the parents of those kids got it out of their hair, or their beds for that matter. Gracey could not smile or talk much with the clown paint. It was hilarious. Stake Conference was the next day so it came off for church, they really wanted the paint to stay on though.

Chlo-Chlo, Jamers and L.J. loved the train. It was a highlight. They are all such fabulous friends. I love it.

The "Two Peas in a Pod". They do everything together, seriously!

Megan's goal was to get to the top. She made it half way. Every year she gets up a bit more though. She wants to do it and tries so hard. Then she says, "I can't help it if I got dad's scared of heights genes". She cracks me up!

We went to Rebecca's PTSO school carnival 2 Saturdays ago. It was so much fun. They go all out and Reb does so much for it. It is a true carnival with booths, blow up bouncers, cake walks, silent auctions, Kiss the Pig, Petting Zoo, train rides, bumper cars and even a Guitar Hero station. This is our second year going and it is a great event to attend. There is even a D.J. playing music the whole afternoon. Crazy! It is so much work and Reb is exhausted but she (and her board) do a fabulous job. Once we got there, we found Chloe and she and Jamers would not get out of the petting zoo. Luke screamed every time an animal came near him. I never saw Gracey after she and Cassie found each other (screaming, might I add, upon recognition of each others presence). Megan made me watch her attempt to climb the wall many times and Luke even got to throw a baseball for speed. He was in heaven. Thanks goodness it was baseball because if it had been football we would still be there.

Daddy Daughter Dance Luau

It was the annual Daddy/Daughter Dance at the girls' elementary school on Friday, Feb. 20th. The girls got dressed up in their cover ups from our trip to Mexico on the Disney Cruise and Party City had enough Hawaiian paraphernalia to choose from to compliment the outfits. As always, the girls danced and danced and danced and the dad's sat and watched and commented on how much energy they all have and how great of friends they have with in our circle of friends. We are truly blessed to have such good friends and cousins around. Jim, Jeff and Brad took Lexy, Bailey, Macy, Megan and Gracey.

Just A Few Tidbits From Our Family

While we were in Mexico, Rachie came to babysit and visit our kids. She had a blast with them and enjoyed swimming and riding bikes with them. She did have one mishap with Luke and him not making it to the toilet in the Jacuzzi though. She said the hot tub cleared out real quick and no one wanted to swim after that. She also said Luke loved showering and would not get out. I have always bathed him and have never experienced the shower with him. Since being home we have shared a shower or two. He loves it except for when you block the water from him. He likes to ask where it went, then say, "oh, there it is", or he just screams.

Rach also said that at breakfast one morning he started singing Beyonces "Single Ladies" song. She laughed and asked him is he was singing "All the Single Ladies" and he replied, "Yessss". He had since sung it quite a bit. I woke up one morning to him singing the "Ohh, Oh, Oh" part over and over again. It was quite the little alarm clock. Jim is mortified that that is what he insists on singing as the song drives him crazy. Of all the songs on my ipod, he can't believe he remembers that one the most.

Luke is a bundle of joy for us. We love him dearly and although he is hot or cold, his sweetness outweighs any issues we have with him. He rarely says yes or okay. He almost always says, "all right". He drags it out though so it sounds like, "auul riiiight". It is so dang cute.

Rach told me that she asked the kids to clean up and Jameson said, "oh my mom will be so happy, she just loves a clean house". It's a bit scary that she knows that but she is my little helper when we clean the house each week. She knows where the rags are and asks what she can do next non stop as I am cleaning. I hope she continues on that path.

Upon arriving home and getting into the swing of things we had a huge predicament on the Friday we got home. I was running errands with Luke and Jamers and my nephews and Luke started to cry behind me. He was saying, "my nose, my nose". I got out a wipee thinking it was running and looked behind me. I then saw a pink shiny bead in his nostril. I told him to not sniff and popped it out. I thought to myself, "phew, that could have been bad." Well, he kept crying and pointing to his other nostril. As I tipped his head back, I saw another bead in his nostril but this one was pushed so far back I could not get it. It was passed the outer nostril and sitting in the crevice behind in. There is a little pocket that it was resting in. I tried to get him to blow it out but he only was blowing through his mouth. This year in swim he will learn to blow through his nose if it kills me. Apparently he was using his mouth last summer. Anyway, I called the doctor's office and asked for an appointment or if there was anything I could do. They told me to have him sneeze with pepper and see what happens. On the way home to get the pepper, he sneezed on his own. I quickly turned around to find nothing had come out. I was disappointed. I talked to Heather and she said to get a bulb syringe and try and suck it out. I located one after many calls and tried it. He was not too happy and I could not hold him down. I ended up going to the doctors and he pried it out with tweezers that were long and had grips to hold the slippery bead. It took one doctor, a nurse and me to hold him down. He was screaming and not too happy about being restrained but I bet he learned his lesson. At least I hope he has. Needless to say, if it happens again, I will be prepared for what to do. I'll go to Walgreen's, get some tweezers like she had and rope 3 people to help hold him down. He is a strong little guy. After telling Rachie of the experience, she was thankful it happened then and not when she was babysitting the week before.

Last week I was cooking dinner and Megan said, "you know mom that ground beef is just a nice way of saying cut up cow". I giggled and thought to myself, :the things she thinks of". A bit later I was doing laundry and heard her tell Gracey that same thing. I was waiting for her to freak out as they were eating dinner (ground beef). I said her name in that mom tone to get her to stop and she said, "but mom, I'm just using the "persuasive technique" that they have been teaching us is school". She is unbelievable.

My last Megan story happened the other night when she was in the shower. I asked if she washed her face and she said she did but only with water. She scrubbed it really good but couldn't use the soap because the box it came in said to not use it by your eyes or mouth. I tell you, that kid is all about the rules! Although sometimes it is a pain and it takes some convincing on my part on somethings, I hope she follows the rules the rest of her life. It takes a lot of convincing and talking when she sees stickers on boats that say to wait 10 minutes after stopping to swim so exhaust will dissipate. It's also not so good when I need to pick them up by the bikes but that's not the "parent pick up line". That kid keeps me on my toes for sure.

One last adorable thing that happened last week was when Jim went motorcycle riding with his friend Saturday morning. Luke was right under his feet, getting out the bike, helping his get his gear on, pulling out his own motorcycle bike. Well, when they hooked up the trailer to haul the bikes, they were tying it down and Luke took his bike to the back of the trailer, pushed it up onto the trailer, right beside Jim's and told them to tie his down too. It was so dang cute. He couldn't understand why he couldn't get his bike to go too. I love that he is so into boy things and such a fanatic about helmets. The picture up top is a picture of him riding after they took off.

Valentines Day in Mexico

Jim and I loved this picture of Reb. She looked so beautiful.

We decided to make reservations at a restaurant at the hotel for Valentines. We got all dressed up and sat on the deck of the restaurant to eat. The ocean waves crashed right under us. The food was yummy and the ambiance was so nice. We ended the night with chocolate souffles.

Cancun, Mexico

Eating breakfast at the hotel. Jim has stayed at the Hilton so much that he got free breakfast for us every morning. It was so wonderful. Many who know me know how much I enjoy a good breakfast, especially one not prepared by myself. I had a bagel with cream cheese, omelet, fresh fruit and cold cereal for breakfast every morning. It was AWESOME!
As you will see, most of our pictures are of us eating at restaurants. We made a goal to eat at a new place every night. We only went back to one Mexican restaurant because it was so good the first time.

Jim and Jared decided to Scuba Dive and get PADI certified while on our vacation. Jim really just needed something to do, besides lay by the pool and ocean and sun bathe. Jared took one for the team and says I owe him now. It took up a half day in the pool and almost a full day to actually do the 30 foot dive and testing. They enjoyed themselves and Reb and I thoroughly enjoyed doing nothing. Much to my dismay, the boys took no pictures of themselves on the actual dive. They both had phones with cameras but no pictures non the less.

Jim on the way home took Reb's pillow and snoozed. He really isn't asleep yet and was making fun in this picture but the pillow came in real handy when he really wanted to sleep.

We took the bus everywhere we went for 65 pesos. It was dirty and smelly but inexpensive to use and thrilling to ride it. A couple of times it wasn't so much thrilling as scary. The buses in Cancun rule the road and the drivers assume everyone will just get out of their way. Yikes!

We stayed at the Hilton in Cancun and it was beautiful. The hotel is a 5 star hotel and it showed. We were well taken care of and the hotel was amazing. The beach area was fabulous, except for some rocks, and the pool was gorgeous, and heated! That was the best part. Reb and I are wimps so it was the perfect temperature. After we basked in the sun all day, we would soak in the hot tub for about an hour then head up to get ready for dinner. We ate lunch by the pool some days but made PBJ's most days in the hotel room for quick lunches. We went shopping the night we got there and bought snacks, lunch stuff and bottled water to last us the duration of the stay.

This was our second time to Cancun with Jared and Rebecca and mine and Jim's third time back. It is such a great city and we have great memories here.

Most days we stayed on the beach. The breeze was wonderful and by the pool is often got too hot. We lounged under the Tiki umbrellas for hours, reading and napping.

The view from our hotel room.

Reb and Jared on the city bus.

GO CARDS!!!

Jim and his brothers, Steve, Greg and Jeff were able to go the CARDINALS game that determined if they were going to the Superbowl. The boys are such great friends and get along fabulously. It was a treat for them to spend the afternoon together and experience the team winning!

Luke Turns 3

January 8th Luke turned 3. We had a small party at our house for L.J.'s birthday. Heather brought balloons and the kids played a game where you tie it to your ankle and step on others balloons to pop them. If you have a your balloon at the end, you win. It was a very loud game but the kids had such fun. They played it twice. As you can see, we adults plugged our ears. For Luke's birthday Jim and I gave him a ride on RHINO for when we go camping. He rides it everywhere and likes it almost as much as his motorcycle bike Santa brought him 2 weeks earlier.

New Years

We went camping for New Years right after we got home from Colorado. We went out on Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Sunday. It was nice because where we camp is about 20 minutes from home so we spent New years Day riding and enjoyed the beautiful weather, then the boys all headed into work on Friday and left us girls to play with the kids. Jared and Jim rode motorcycles while we road the rhinos. The kids had a blast riding together and playing with each other.

Christmas Morning In Colorado

Just awake and ready to open presents. We sang our traditional "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home" and entered the house to see what Santa brought.
Mom and I took pictures with Megan's new camera on Christmas Eve to make sure it was working. We wanted it charged and ready for her to use. Megan took 194 pictures during the time we were there and it was great to actually be in some pictures. I'm always the one holding the camera and I am a horrible picture taker (I forget to do it) so we have many many pictures for our memory books due to Megan.

Gracey got some new clothes from Grammy for Christmas. They were so cute. She really wanted a new bike from Santa so he brought her a purple beach cruiser. She rides it almost every day and attaches papers, water bottles , markers, and toys to the back rack with bungee cords. She will never change.

Luke loved this remote control quad rider. He mastered it super well for being so young. He also got a new bike that looks like a motorcycle from Santa. He did not get off the bike except for to get into the fridge, pour egg beaters into a cup and try and drink it. He also had a break while we were not paying attention and we found him in a corner in the kitchen hiding, eating my sugar cookies. The look of his face was priceless as he gobbled them up.

Nana made sure Jamers had a new blanket to open on Christmas morning. I called a couple days before Christmas and mom ran to Joann's and got the kit, sewed it and mailed it so she would have it to open. She sleeps with it every night and loves it so much. It is very warm.

Megan really wanted binoculars and books for Christmas this year. I asked her why she wanted them and she said so she could look at the world. Santa came through and delivered them for her. She wore them the whole week around her neck. When we drove anywhere, she looked out the window and enjoyed the scenery through the binoculars.

We were so happy to be up in Colorado to enjoy the snow and to get away from the hustle and bustle of the "real" world. We love spending Christmas up there. There is something so special about Colorado for us. It is truly God's Country and so amazing.