Called to Serve

A few weeks ago, I was asked at church to clean the chapel as a family on either Saturday, April 19th or April 26th. I quickly in my head thought of my work schedule and realized that I worked the 19th and was on call the 26th which is as good as working. Ah, I had an out. I told her I would love to but I worked and Mike wouldn't be able to do it by himself and the kids. The woman replied that it could be cleaned on Friday the night before. She also said she lets the families with little kids clean the chapel because the doors can be closed in order to barricade the kids in. Darn it. I chose the 26th already picturing my children running around the chapel screaming and only lasting 15 minutes tops and then making their way throughout the rest of the church. It was going to be a nightmare. I thought that maybe we could find a babysitter, but it is always hard to find one.

Well, last night we rounded up the kids' toy vacuums and headed off to clean. I can't believe how smoothly everything went. Landen and Gage pretended to vacuum and then found glass cleaner and proceeded to clean everything not made of glass. I just hope the piano works okay tomorrow in sacrament meeting. About halfway through, Gage ran over to me and said, "Mommy, I can't believe we are cleaning the church. I am having the best time ever!" Are you kidding me? The best time ever? We have taken our kids to Disneyworld, Disneyland, Sea World, Hawaii, Six Flags, etc and cleaning the church is the funnest time they have ever had? I could have saved myself a lot of money if I would have known that. What a lesson Gage taught me. You don't have to spend a lot (or any) money to have fun. Simply spending time with the family and serving our Heavenly Father can be enough.

Mike said he thought we should volunteer to clean the church every few months because of the great lesson it taught our kids. I wouldn't go that far, but he is on the right track.

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad?

So the 19th was my mom's birthday. Every year my parents get more and more difficult to buy for. This year we decided to combine their birthday's (my dad's b-day isn't until October) and we all bought them a Wii. My mom had mentioned a few weeks ago how much fun she had playing the wii at my Aunt's house. My dad has never played one before but he is a gamer. I think it was defiantely a surprise, but a good one.

My dad said he liked the boxing the best. He said what great shape he would be in if he could do it for 30 minutes every morning. Hasn't happened yet.

What great bowling form!

Let the fun begin!

Well, we have been in our house for almost a year now. I can't believe how fast time has flown. We are finally starting to put our yard in. Wanting a bigger backyard was one of the reasons we moved from our other house. It may sound greedy, but having three boys you kinda want to be able to just shove them outside and let them run off some of their energy in an enclosed, safe place. We got 12 truckloads of dirt hauled in today and I think we still need more. Mike says that's all we get. We'll see after it gets spread around I guess. The tractor guy should start the spreading the first of next week and then we are going to the sewer plant to get some nice poop dirt for the finish layer. (Hey, the poop dirt is free. It may stink for awhile, but it makes your grass grow awesome.)

The dirt needs to go everywhere.

Lot's of work to be done.

Car Wash

On Saturday, Mike and the boys washed both our vehicles. I was inside wrangling Tanner when Landen came running in. He was all excited and said, "Mommy, Daddy is washing your tires with whip cream!" I busted out laughing and went outside to see what was going on. Mike was using tire foam to clean my tires. Kids have such an imagination.

Tanner at 8 months

I can't believe Tanner is 8 months already. He is getting so big. He started crawling about two weeks ago. He made his first attempts while we were in California and when we got home he started moving all over. He is getting pretty fast. Now, he is pulling himself up using the couch and trying to climb up the stairs. I forgot how hard a mobile baby is. He has whacked is head on the tile a few times already while attempting the stairs. Landen isn't liking this new Tanner too much because Tanner has a thing for Landen's cars. Tanner also has two bottom teeth.

A Trip to the Zoo

Last Friday, my friend Heidi and I took our kids to the zoo. I have to admit when she invited me I was a little scared to take all three of my kids to the zoo without Mike or my mom to help. Heidi would be busy with her own two kids. The boys were so good. I of course warned them the entire way and layed down rules. No fighting, no whining, and no complaining are words Gage and Landen heard for the almost hour ride there. It must have actually sunk in because all three of them were close to perfect angels. I intended on bringing my camera, but didn't feel too bad when I noticed I had forgotten it. I thought I would be too busy watching three boys that taking pictures would only be a luxury anyway. Since I did forget it, there were plenty of opportunities for picture moments. Gage even hopped into a boat and said, "Mom take a picture of me." We will just have to go again this summer.

I really talked up seeing the white alligator. It was one of only 10 in the world and it happened to be at the Hogle Zoo. Gage took one look at it and said, "It doesn't look white, it's light green." Which it actually did look flourescent green in the water. Heidi said it really did look white when it wasn't in the water. We waited a minute to see if the alligator was going to move at all out of the water, but it didn't. Why do kids have to be so darn smart?

Gage's favorite animal was seeing the enourmous snake. Not so much my favorite part. Landen of course loved riding the train. I liked seeing the new baby giraffe and the baby monkey riding on its mama's back. Tanner was just happy when he was let out of his stroller.

California Fun

Well, we have been back from California for a week now and I am finally blogging about it. It took me that long to get back into the swing of things and catch up on all the laundry. We had a blast. We went for my niece's blessing and to visit Brandy and fam. We left at 3 am on the Thursday before Easter and yes we drove all the way to Fairfield, California. It took about 11 hours total. I have to say the kids really did do pretty good. We only stopped to eat twice and had one bathroom break. When we were in Reno, Gage did say, "I want to live in California forever." I asked him why because we weren't even there yet. He replied, "Because it is too long of a drive to go back home."

The kids were happy to finally being going to Ava's house. We had been talking about it for weeks.



Tanner had no clue that he would be spending the next 11 hours stuck in his carseat. He did awesome! It's amazing how entertained a straw can keep a 7 1/2 month old.



On Friday, we went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. They had an entire section in kiddieland devoted to Thomas the Train. Landen was in heaven. I was so proud of Gage because he walked the entire time. I wasn't able to bring my double stroller and Gage was forced to walk. He did great. The first half of the day wasn't one I really want to remember. The guys dropped the women and kids off at the gate and headed off to park the cars. We kept calling the guys but apparently the parking was awful. It is like Disneyland where you have to park far away and it took them 2 hours to meet up with us. Well, I had two kids in two strollers and Gage. Luckily Ava's other cousins came and one of them pushed Tanner around. While most of the kids were on one of the rides, Landen had to go to the bathroom and Tanner was crying to be taken out of his stroller. My sister Brandy was busy with her own baby so she agreed to watch Gage while I headed off to the bathrooms with Landen and Tanner. Well, Landen hasn't quite learned how to go to the bathroom standing up or sitting down unless he sits backwards (he has to strip down to sit backwards). So I helped him sit on the toilet sideways while holding Tanner like a football underneath my arm. Well, Landen couldn't wait for me to give him the go ahead and he started peeing only the stream wasn't pointed anywhere near the toilet. It shot on the stall wall and then all over his pants as I shoved it down into the toilet. Not fun. I wasn't very happy when Mike showed up only to find out later the guys made a run on a rollercoaster near the entrance on their way into the park.

On Saturday, we toured the Jelly Belly Factory where they make gourmet jelly beans. We thought the Easter Bunny was going to be there, but he didn't show up until after we had left.

After the Jelly Belly Factory, it was off to the Muir Woods which is a smaller version of the Redwood Forest. It was beautiful. It was so fun to hike and enjoy the fresh air. Gage and Landen struggled with all the walking. I told Gage that he needed to appreciate the Muir Woods because we would probably never make it there again. Gage said, "Oh, thank you. I don't ever want to come here again."

Later Saturday night, we dyed Easter Eggs by the pool. It lasted maybe 5 minutes and then it was back to swimming. Brandy's place has an indoor pool that we pretty much swam in every night. This picture makes me realize how skinny my kids are. I promise I do feed them!

On Easter morning, the Easter bunny left a note saying he left a jellybean trail for all the kids to follow in order to find their baskets. He also said that their eggs were hidden at a park for them to find later. Adyson's blessing was at 9am so there wasn't much time for an Easter celebration before church.

The trail of jellybeans led the kids to the tennis courts where the baskets were found!

On Monday, we took a ferry into San Fransisco. This is a picture of us at Pier 39. Apparently it is a famous pier but I had never heard of it before. We also went to Ghiredelli's for some yummy ice cream and chocolate. On the ferry ride home, Landen wasn't sitting in his seat very well. A nice ferry worker came over to Landen to just give him a hard time for fun. He asked Landen how old he was. Landen replied, "I'm 3, but I'll be 4 next." The ferry worker asked, "When will you be 4?" Landen said confidently, "After 3."

We also took a ferry out to Alcatraz island where the infamous prison is and Al Capone was once held. It was really interesting, but is not a place for kids. Every 15-20 seconds Gage or Landen would inform Mike and I how bored they were, how hungry they were, and how ready they were to go home.

Now it wouldn't be a family vacation without some bad luck now would it? On our long drive home Mike was pulled over twice. Yes, twice within an hour of each other. The first was just outside of Reno and the speed limit is 70mph where 3 miles later it turns to 75mph. Mike was going 80mph and the great state of Nevada has plane patrol. We received a nice fine for this. Well, an hour later we were pulled over by a sheriff because we were going 81mph (speed limit is now 75mph) and he only lets people go 5mph over. He also noticed my mom get out of her seatbelt to help my kids with something so he thought one of our children were unrestrained in the vehicle. He let us go with a warning.

I took so many pictures that I had to do a slideshow to show some other fun moments.

Rock a Bye Baby

So last night, we hauled the entire family off to watch Mike's indoor soccer game. I had the bright idea of bringing a stroller for Tanner so I wouldn't have to hold him the entire time and he could see what was going on. Well, Gage and Landen thought it was the greatest thing in the world to stroll him around the indoor complex. Well, this boy named Camden had a toy push car and he kept running into Gage and Landen's legs. Gage went over to Camden's mom and said, "Can you please tell Camden to stop running into us. We are trying to go for a nice stroll and lull our baby to sleep. It is really hard to lull our baby to sleep with Camden's loud car running into us." How in the world does a five year old know what "lull" is? I don't think I have ever said "lull" in my life. Later on, Gage pushes Tanner over to me and I notice Tanner's hair is soaking wet. I asked Gage why Tanner was so wet. Gage simply replied, "Tanner was hot so we got some water from the drinking fountain and cooled him off." Poor Tanner. He doesn't have a chance.

Pirate Tom

I don't think my dad thought I was serious when I told him I was going to post a picture of him in action. This is Tom at his trade show in Cali last week. It was a pirate themed trade show and my dad got right in on the action. Chew Gum!

Minus Some Hardware

Yesterday, I got my screw removed from my knee. I think so far the hardest thing for me was not eating. Go figure. My first surgery started at like 8 am and I felt great afterwards. I was starving and ate right away. This surgery didn't start until 2 in the afternoon and I had nausea afterwards and didn't feel like eating. We also went grocery shopping Monday night and bought all this yummy food that I had to sit and stare at all Tuesday morning. I don't recommend doing that. Anyway, the surgery went great. I have been able to walk on it already but I can't unwrap it until tomorrow and then my stitches come out on Monday. I hope this does the trick so I can start playing soccer again soon. I think the screw is about 1 1/2 inches long, but the washer is what is gross. It has these spike things on it. I can't believe it went through my bone. The doc said it should take about 6 weeks before the bone seals the hole.