New Pictures!

Peeking around the corner!
Ralphie loves to slide!
We are Pirates! ARRGH!
Jake sure loves the cannon!

I took the boys to the local park today and got some pictures of them. These are my favorites!

Idle Hands...

Last night I was studying for my last final for the semester and I decided to look at my grades and see what I needed to get on the final and I discovered it didn't matter. I could get a 0% or a 100% and I would still end up with a 'B' in the class so I emailed the Professor, asked him if my estimates were correct and he emailed back and said that it was true - so I don't have to take the final. I found that out this morning.PHEW!!! What a break right? So, what do I do? I decided to look at my house in a way of "what would I do if I had lots of free time" (HA, HA right?) I decided I wanted to PAINT MY HOUSE! Am I crazy? Do I know what kind of work that will be - with TWO LITTLE BOYS AT HOME? OK, yes apparently I am certifiable. So, my husband isn't totally on board yet so I thought - what better way to convince him that we need to paint the walls of the Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Entryway, and Hallway than to patch all the holes and knicks in the walls. Surely once he saw my spots he would decide we need to paint....

Does anyone else see a pattern to my spots? Am I crazy or are my children all under the height of 4 feet? With their arms stretched up? :) My whole LR, DR, Kitchen, Entryway, and hallway looks like a...well, a giraffe - a 4' tall giraffe. In defense, the BIG hole by the door was my fault - but that was it I am sure! My friend - Mrs Peutershmidt - walks in and laughs "You have got to get a picture of this"...my brother walks in "What the heck?"...my husband walks in.....NOTHING...Ralphie and Audry walk in "When are you doing our rooms?" Do I know what I have gotten into? Oh, and J still hasn't committed to painting...Our friends won't judge us by our house right? :)...

Mother's Day 2008

Let me just tell you...I had the best mother's day EVER. Saturday night our family went to Chili's to eat dinner (I figured what is a mother's day dinner without the kids? OR did I just neglect to get a babysitter - you decided because I will never tell! ) Anyway, we had the best time!

When we arrived it went something like this:

Hostess: How many?

Me: Six

Hostess: Six, wow! Are they all yours?

Me: Yep.

J: (To me) Like we would borrow someone else's kids to come here with. Do we really seem that insane?

I ordered baby back ribs and the kids about died. "How could you eat baby's ribs?!" They were horrified. I had to explain to them that they were beef ribs and not human baby's, then I also had to explain that they weren't baby calf ribs and that that was just their name. Then Matilda pipes up - "Well it's a good thing that we aren't vegetarians!"

Ralphie was trying to sleep in the booth by the end of the night but the kids were really good. We had alot of fun.

Generation 1 Generation 2

Generation Three

Then on Sunday my sister and her family from Hawaii stopped by on their way to Mom's house and we got to play with them for awhile. After they went on then the kids and I just hung out together watching a movie. Around 7:30 J's parents and grandmom came over to visit for Mother's Day as well. They are so fun. We took pictures of the three generations of mothers in the family. I wasn't ready for pictures but who cares right?

The coolest thing for me yesterday though is that my siblings and I went together and commissioned a portrait of my oldest brother who died when he was 18 months old. The last picture that they had of him was taken a few days before he died and time has not been kind. I first tried to get that picture restored but it was really far gone. Then I had an artist that I know do a pencil portrait of him and she did a beautiful job! My mom called and told us (my sister was still here) that the portrait was amazing. That the expression on his face wasn't in the picture but that she captured him exactly. It was a beautiful miracle for her. I just cried. My older sister called later and told me how it affected her as well and helped her to realize how important each moment is and to not take advantage of one second. It was such a beautiful growing moment for all of us.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL THE SPECIAL WOMEN WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE EVERYDAY BY LOVING YOUR CHILDREN!

Father -Son Fishing!

A few weeks ago J took the boys on a father/son campout with a bunch of other dads from our Stake and they had a great time. After camping all night they got up and went fishing. Jake caught this fish all by himself - including reeling it in. They were so very proud! Jake named him "Filler." They brought him home for mommy to clean (where is the justice in that?) but they kept him alive. The girls were so very excited they started discussing how to kill a fish without torturing him too much and got Jake so upset that he and I went for a drive back to the lake to let Filler go free to "grow" a little more so we can catch him again.

When Matilda was in the cab the nice fireman asked her if she would like to honk the horn, so she started pounding and pounding on the center of the steering wheel. He finally got her attention to point out the rope used to blow the horn. When she did the boys jumped so very high! It was awsome :)

We went grocery shopping today and the firemen had their firetruck up at the store letting people see the truck, have tours around it and for little kids - they got to sit in it and blow the horn or set off the sirens. The kids thought that it was really cool!