Train Fun Grandpa Style

It is always fun to get the tracks out with Grandpa and see what happens.The building, the merging of the minds and what is the end product......
An incredible track system that has lots of thrills built into it.

Plus, one big disaster pit, that is a must for any track system.

We just love our grandpa.

Cousin Fun

While we were back getting the last of our house, we decided to get together with the cousins. We meet at a great shady park and let the kids play and play after a boring day of packing yet another Uhaul truck. DQ happy at last, something fun to do.
My little monkey boy.

But then the rules were broken and he was to spend the rest of the night here, in time-out.

Does he look pathetic enough for you?

He told Aunt L that his mom was super mean.

YES I AM!!!!

The Man playing football with just a few of the many boys in his family. I could not believe that he had the energy to do it after loading the truck and then we went on to play volleyball.

It was a great night, lots of fun. It did however take a few slow stretches to get moving the next morning and a BIG dose of Ibuprofen.

Thanks Utah cousins, we hope you will come for a visit soon.

The re-visist of a great post

Since I met one of my bloggy friends a few weekends ago, she reminded me of her favorite post.

So this re-visit is for you Elena.

I hope you enjoy it and everyone else too, it really is one of my favorites too.

Click here

Happy Father's Day

I know that he is not my Father, but I want to pay tribute to a man that is really as good as my dad, my husband.

When I met The Man, I was not impressed. I really did not like him that much and was not shy about expressing it, but we grew to be friends and then fell in love. I am so glad that he did not give up on me and that he stuck it out when I clearly did not feel the same as him, his patience has given me the best (almost) 14 years of my life.

Why do I think he is a great man.......because he can be just as silly and goofy and nutts as me. Just ask my BFF as we took her camera one day at an outing and unknown to her proceeded to load it with alot of these kinds of pictures. That after a long day of work he can still go out and do flips on the tramp or play crack the egg with the kids.
That because I wanted it, he worked so hard, even in the snow, to finish the deck for me to enjoy.

That he is one of my favorite men in my life. That he is a strong man of God and he loves his family fiercely.

That no matter what I give him, no matter how many pictures I take and no matter how many times I change my mind, he loves it, he poses' and he is my biggest supporter.

Happy Father's Day honey!

I am so glad that I married you and that together we have created such a fun family. I love being your partner in life, love and all our adventures.

Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime......

I know we have only been in this house for 2 1/2 weeks but there are some things that just have to be changed and the outside lights were one of them, and the flower beds needed my special touch, but that is a whole other post.

Saturday I went out garage-sale'ing and found some brand-new-still-in-the-box-outside-lights for a killer deal. It was time to put them up. The sun was shining and it was finally not raining and most of the light-bulbs on the old lights were burnt out. Definitely time to change out those lights. So as I am up on the ladder working away, Sweet-boy and "B" decided to make box people out of the boxes.

With a little instruction on the proper technique for punching out holes in the boxes using a screw driver, they were happily on their way to making something wonderful.
Sweet-boy going to town on the right place for a arm-hole.

"B" kinda scary with the screwdriver.

"Can you see me mom?"

All done and ready to parade around the neighborhood.

"B" with plenty of air-holes in the box.

All this from a couple of boxes.

I love watching what kids come up with to entertain themselves on a nice summer day with nothing but two boxes and their HUGE imaginations.

Yahoo!!!

It finally happened!

The tooth that has been the joke at dinner, the ever present thing on my Sweet-boys lip- is no more. We have a gap in the smile and Mom is ever so happy. I just wish it had not been 4am that the dear little tooth decided to "POP" out and leave it's home. All that yelping and screaming that early in the morning is not good for sleeping nor my heart-rate, but all good things never happen in the still of the night, do they?!
Three teeth gone, how many more to go? If he is anything like his sister he will loose them in bunches. But for today we are happy with this one new gap in the smile.

Here comes the sun!!!!

Finally the sun came out. It has rained and rained and if it was not rainy it was cloudy and cold. Not very good pool weather and my little fishy kids have just been dying to go to the pool. We loaded up our stuff, met our friends at the pool and started to have some fun.
The kids finally in the water.

Drama Queen looks like she is tackling the English Channel.

Sweet-boy showing me his entrance into the pool.

It was a great day, one where I slathered on the sunscreen on everyone but me. So mom is glad that the rain has returned, she needs time to recover from her first burn of the summer.

Can someone get rid of this tooth?

For over two months we have had a wiggly tooth in our house. Normally it is Drama Queen that is falling apart but finally it is Sweet-boy that seems to be ready to loose the baby-teeth. You would think that with all the whooping and hollering that goes on when a tooth is lost that he would want in on it?

NO!!!!

We now deal with a kid that has his front tooth hanging out all the time, looking like something that I have seen somewhere before......... But where.......And then I remember, "A Year Without A Santa Clause". This is one of my most favorite Christmas, Rankin-Bass cartoony movies of all time. Needless to say that everytime I see my little guy, I smile. He is very watchful over his tooth and wants it to fall out when it is ready. So for now we watch and wait. But I think I will go and watch that movie, all because of a tooth.

The Petti-bomb-skirt

So the kids in our Utah ward were all wearing these skirts - the pettiskirt. I looked at them during sharing time thinking that they would be easy to make, just alot of gathering. Then I talked to one of the mom's that had made one, it took her 8 hours to make just one and as she explained it to me, my eyes glazed over. Suddenly the hefty amount that they wanted on the internet was nothing compared to my sanity. So I ordered one, had it sent to Idaho and it was here waiting for us when we arrived.

She looks so grown-up.

Can you believe she will be in middle school next year - yup Mom is having a hard time relating to that. But for now she is my "Sweet-pea".

The Big Move Part 1

Finally the day had come; the big move, the truck was rented, the house was packed and we were anxious to get things loaded and get going. The kids were a big help in loading the truck with all the boxes. I think they liked playing with the dolly more then moving boxes.

Look at those hard workers, they really helped alot!
DQ playing in the trees in the park one last time. We will miss the big trees, but I am sure we will find some more to climb by our new home.
Saying "Good-bye" to friends.

All our stuff either in the truck, on the lawn or in the garage. We had so much help that the house cleared out in about an hour. What took the longest was realizing that we had too much stuff to fit on the truck and having to unpack the truck and get the essentials on for the initial trip.

The truck is packed and this is all the furniture that will need to remain behind till we can come back for it. What a mess, but also amazing that we have that much stuff. I am the purge queen, so I was surprised that we had any left-over, but we do.....

Finally we are off...... The Man drove the truck with his car hauled behind. It was quite the caravan. (Don't look now Dad but I am taking this picture while I am driving - ahhhhhhh).

Finally the state line comes into view and we are feeling that much closer to our new life, our new adventure and what we hope will be happier times.

Our new home - we are so happy that we are here. It was great to arrive at "Home" to have so many people be there to welcome us and help to get our home off the truck and into its new residence.

Now we can really start saying, "there is no place like home......."

Stay Tuned for the "before and after of the move". I hate unpacking but it needs to be done.

I can never wait for anything

The Man works for Canon and so you would think that we could get some cool things......yep we do. I got a great camera for

'just cause" and a printer to finally print off all those pictures that I take.... So when the parents camera died we decided to get them one. Since I can never wait to give gifts to people we gave it to them - NOW!!!! Look at all those instructions that are never going to be read.
It is a tiny power shot and is so small and cute that I was wanting one too. We could have gotten it in Pink and Purple, but Dad was glad that we didn't.

Sweet-boy gets to be the first picture.

Happy Mother's / Father's Day folks!!!

Did someone call for a Doctor?

I was a little late in getting out of bed, so in our house that must mean that there is something wrong with Mom, heaven forbid that I could be tired or something..... But here came my in-house medical crew - Doctor Sweet-boy and Nurse Drama Queen.

First they needed to ascertain the extent of my illness - "Mom, are you in there?"
It was determined that I was suffering from the most severe cases of foot neglect they had ever been seen. Doctor Sweet-Boy removed the cancer from my toes while Nurse DQ assisted.

The need for serious intervention was determined and a new medical device was used in removing all remaining dead tissue from my foot - (love my Pedi-egg).
This is where Nurse Drama Queen really took over, she scrubbed and rubbed till my foot was nice and smooth.

I am glad to say that the patient survived the operation and is looking forward to another procedure as my feet are in dire need, again.

Gotta love the in-house medical crew.