Meiners Mayhem

May Catch-Up

2011-06-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

I'm never going to have/make time to get caught up in a way that does justice to the last two months, so I'm going with the Catch-Up to get the pictures here and prevent myself from getting even further behind. One day, my kids will have the complete stories of these pictures in their scrapbooks because I'm totally not 5 years behind there, too!

This is the reason I take May off from teaching preschool - so much is going on in my kids' classes! Sam & I got to help with the Fox Trot run for Josh's class. That's him in the hoodie. He ran 7 laps around the giant soccer field! We also got to go to his Animal Presentation. All the cute kindergartners made dioramas of the animal they had researched and presented it to their class.

We had a chocolate dipping party with some leftover fruit Libby had and bulk chocolate we had.

And, my sisters took some really cool pictures of themselves with my camera which obviously means they want them posted on the blog, right?
Sam and I made some really cool art projects with toothpicks, popsicle sticks, and marble painting.

We went to some special event at Wheeler Farm, but I honestly can't remember what it was called. We still had a great time looking at the animals, chasing ducks, watching a sheep sheering, and sitting on the tractors.

And, I made some cute owl pillows for my neighbor to give to her friend that's about to have her first baby boy. I kinda wanted to keep them...

April Catch-Up

2011-06-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

We dyed eggs

and hunted for them - once at Grandma's and once at Aunt Libby's.

We spent an afternoon at the Thanksgiving Point Petting Farm doing research for Josh's Pig Project. We took a little break to ride the horses.

And pose for some pictures.

Jared & I celebrated our 13th anniversary. He wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse and since my sisters and I always dress up for birthdays, he brought home hats and boots to dress up for our dinner out. We were surprised by how many comments we received about our hats - we do live in Lehi after all!

And, we started and ended April with music. Jared took me to see Reba & George Strait at the beginning of the month. I luv Reba! We went to the symphony at teh end of the month the see a Tribute to ABBA for our anniversary. Thanks to Jared's Mom & Dad for the tickets! And, thanks to Jared for listening to music he would have never chosen on his own!

This picture is from Manda's blog, I don't remember her running down to the floor to get such a close-up, so I'm guessing it's not really from the concert...

but these are!

Sam's haircut

2011-05-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Being the youngest has it's perks. One of those being that mom is too tired to fight the Bowl-Cut war anymore. The boys just don't understand that they have been blessed with good hair. The bowl-cut is the only way I can think of to let their hair grow a little longer without looking like we're Utah County Rebels!

So, Sam wanted spikes. Spikes like Trayce (our neighbor). Fine.
Jake had a bowl-cut until he was 10, Cam until he was 8, and Josh until he was 6.
Sam got rid of it at 3.
You can see why I don't like it - he aged 10 years in the 15 minutes it took to cut his hair!
But, the spikes are cute, too.
And, he has a whole upper half of his face we didn't even know existed!
Like I said, one of the many, many perks of being Sammers!

Spring Break at Powder Mountain

2011-05-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

I'm so far behind and every day that I put off catching up, I get further behind! To quote Sam : " S'not fair!" With that whining out of the way, I'm going to try to get caught up..baby steps.

For Spring Break, we went up to Powder Mountain for the weekend (April 16-17). (It was an attempt at a little bit of redemption on my part as the boys had decided by this point that they didn't want a baby, they wanted to go to LegoLand which was the pre-baby plan.)We spent Friday evening at the pool and the kids stayed up watching movies til they fell asleep. Saturday, they couldn't wait to get in the snow. We went over the the hill with the ski lift and sled down it for a while. The best part was that once we got too cold to sled anymore, we put out suits back on and went back to the pool!

Wanna see something cool?

2011-04-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

So, this is Baby Meiners #5.
He/she is my favorite right now.
He/she doesn't whine at me.
He/she doesn't poop his/her pants that he/she's not wearing.
Although,
He/she does make me puke my guts out all day,
but he/she can't help that.

The biggest reason, though,
He/she is 2 weeks further along than we thought!

I love you best, Baby Meiners #5.

Manda's Reception

2011-04-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

The Party of the Year (at least for us, and at least until Grace's baptism in November) was Manda & Tony's wedding reception. Manda, Abby, Libby, and I worked on stuff from October until 15 minutes before the party started! I was mainly in charge of ties, vests, centerpieces, and wedding cake.

Manda and Tony at the party. Our friends from Louisiana (that now live in Layton) were so fabulous to come down and do Manda's make-up and help the rest of us with our hair.

Our family shot with a little extra coolness from Cam! Now we just need a good 80's party so we can wear the ties and vests again!

Our whole Brossette family

Lib made the Groom's cake - we behaved and didn't make the U blue.

Grace taught Cam some dance moves.

The wedding cake. Lib baked and I decorated. Luckily, Lib transported it, too. I think I would've panicked on the way had it been in my car.

James & Miles dancing.

My friends,Easton, Michelle, and Laurie that came to the party. Laurie was accused of being Manda's mom once when Manda came to church with us. Easton was one of my preschool students that took a liking to Crazy Aunt Manda. And, Michelle is my friend but also Easton's mom & driver.

Cricut Cake 02/18/11

2011-03-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

We needed a cake. One that would feed 250 people, have 3 tiers, be teal, and have a peacock on it. We were having no luck finding one for under $700. That's right, $700 for a cake! So, I got this crazy idea that we could make the cake if we bought the Cricut cake machine. I went to Libby with this epiphany so she could talk sense to me, but instead, she hopped on my Crazy Train!

The machine sat in my Overstock cart for two weeks before I was brave enough to hit the 'Buy It' button. With $100 from the wedding budget and $50 put in from my sisters, it was much easier to push the button!

We tried it out on the Bridal Shower cupcakes.

This is the Cricut Cake Machine.

Peacock themed cupcakes for Manda's Cafe Rio "I'm the Bride" lunch

Libby's food blog pictures to make sure you see all the fabulousness!

Manda & Tony's Wedding 2/25/2011

2011-03-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

Crazy Aunt Manda got married!
Married?
Yes, married!
Married?
Married! Sheesh!

Tony and Manda after the Wedding Ceremony

Tony and Manda at the Gateway on our way to dinner at Tucano's

No party is complete without a Sister Picture!

Tony and Manda at Tucano's.

Our Valentine's Day

2011-03-12T20:16:00.000-08:00

I wish I had pictures!
But, I didn't know what was happening when I left the house!

Around 4PM, Jared called me and asked me to go outside and look in the car for something. Before I could get to the car door, I saw a plate full of chocolate covered strawberries on the hood. They came with a note that told me to "take a break and go to Hart's for a sodie".

I got to Hart's and the lady behind the counter gave me my mug (that Jared had dropped off there 3 days in advance) and told me that my drink had already been paid for. I wonder by who? Inside the mug was a stuffed frog and a note sending me to Lisa's house.

I got to Lisa's house and she gave me a note and a box with a pair of earrings that I thought I had lost along with two new pairs of earrings. A week before, I had lost one of my favorite silver earrings when I got my hair cut. Or, so I thought. Jared bought me new silver earrings and then found the lost one in my car, so he wrapped them all together. I stayed and visited with Lisa until he called and said I could come home.

I came home to a tablecloth and candles on the table which had been moved into he front room. He had made us a steak, salad, baked potato diner and even had music playing in the background. Music being Reba! He banished the kids to the basement with pizza and a movie and we had a nice, quiet dinner. After dinner, we watched Bed of Roses which was my favorite chick flick from college and required that he dust off the VCR and hook it up!

It was a fabulous Valentine's Day. Jared went so far above and beyond to make me feel special and it worked!

Valentine's Day in Kindergarten 2/14/2011

2011-03-12T20:06:00.001-08:00

Every holiday is super-sized when you're in Kindergarten! It doesn't matter how you've celebrated for the last five years, this year will definitely be better!

Josh came home from school wearing his "Special Delivery" valentine costume. He was so funny trying to get out of the carpool van and get his heart on over his coat before coming in the house!

These were his Valentine's that we made for his friends in his class.

And, his Valentine box which had to be the best thing we've EVER created!

Jake and Cam celebrated Valentine's in their classes, too, but they're not up for all of the memory-making photos. Jake's box looked a lot like Josh's. He made it completely himself. Cam's looked similar to the Love Boat, but we left off the frilly pink junk and put S.S.Cam on the back.

Sometimes... 01/22/2011

2011-03-12T19:58:00.000-08:00

Sam is really cute.
And, he asks for a prize after going to JoAnn's.
For the fifth time in one week.
And, I oblige.
Then, we glue popsicle sticks together instead of working on our 'wedding jobs'.
(Don't tell Manda!)

Jr. Jazz (Jan-Feb 2011)

2011-03-12T19:46:00.001-08:00

Joshie playing ball

All three of the big boys played Jr. Jazz basketball this year. I should probably say all four of the big boys since Jared coached Jake's team! We had games every Thursday and double games on Saturdays! That's a lot of basketball!

Jake & Jared's team did really well. They won most of their games. The 5th-6th grade league plays full court and calls things like traveling & fouls. Jake has enjoyd playing 'real' ball. He even went so far as to declare his career path on his Jr. High registration as NBA All-Star!

Cam played in the 3rd-4th grade league. There aren't many rules and his team didn't have practices outside of the 20 minute warm-ups before games. Cam is ready for rules and fouls - he got a little discouraged, but he stayed with it. I went to the first couple games alone because Jared was coaching at the same time. But, that kid really put on a show for his dad during the third game! He was so excited to steal, shoot, and rebound for Jared!

Josh played his first year of basketball. I was so surprised at how well he could dribble. And run. At the same time! He definitely didn't get that from me! I loved watching his games for so many reasons, but the biggest one was watching all these cute boys and girls smile and wave every time they ran to their parents' end of the court!

Wedding Kitchen

2011-03-12T15:13:00.001-08:00

This is what our kitchen looked like for most of February!
OK, I'm lying.
I picked up a few things before I took the picture.

Sam's Happy 3rd Birthday! 1-19-11

2011-03-12T14:44:00.000-08:00

Sam loves the Wonder Pets! You know these guys, right? They're Sewious!

So, naturally, we had a Wonder Pet party. We gave all of our friends Wonder Pet capes and then got busy answering the phone calls of animals in trouble! Jake and Cam giggled their way through phone calls from Jared's phone out on the porch and we listened to their calls for help on my phone inside. Once we knew who needed help, we set off the rescue them and get our reward.

First, we saved the Poodle that was stuck on the Statue of Liberty's nose. Just an FYI, I went into the tax place in the AF Costco parking lot and told them what we were doing and they gave us enough lady Liberty crowns for all of our guests! They're awesome!

Next, we saved the poodle that was stuck on the Eiffel Tower (colored by Josh). We all got a little poodle puff for that one!

Then, we had to save the dolphin that was stuck in a net. Our dolphin looked a little bit like a goldfish, but he was a dolphin! We shared gummy dolphins/sharks as a prize.

Lastly, we had to save the chimp that was stuck in space. (We love this episode because the chimp tries to use a banana for a phone!) Our reward was glow-in-the-dark bouncy balls.

The Birthday Boy with his Wonder Pets cupcakes

Water Beads - 01/15/2011

2011-03-12T14:10:00.000-08:00

We found the most fascinating thing to put in the centerpieces for Crazy Manda's wedding! These little water beads are tiny (see the bag by Sam's hand?) but when you add water to them, they grow to the size of marbles! The little white thing in the corner of the picture is a light that we put down inside of the marbles to make them glow. It may sound mundane, but in a house full of boys, this is
pretty amazing stuff!

The part that's not so amazing is the slippery sludge in my driveway that reappears each time there's precipitation! I guess that's what happens when Sam finds the 5 gallon Gott jug full of these things the day after the wedding and decides to pour them out!

Happy Birthday to Me! 1-11-11

2011-03-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

On the way out the door to my Sister Party, I found these!

Well, actually, Sam and Jake had already been here and Jared returns every night so I didn't really find them. But, I did find a chocolate cake, a dozen roses and a new dryer.
A dryer that dries clothes in one load, not three!
A dryer that has a light inside - have you ever seen one of those?
A dryer that has a cool buzzer to let me know it's time to pause my stories and change the laundry!
I love it! Be jealous.

We went to Godwood for my birthday dinner. I'm pretty sure all four of us got brisket. And don't let your eyes fool you, that IS a Diet Coke brownie cake!

A better shot of the cake. Be double-jealous.

And you can be triple-jealous because my ever-thoughtful sisters got me a Jake Ryan t-shirt for my gift!! Could you want anything else?

After dinner, we went and tried on wedding shoes. You don't have to be jealous of this fabulous shot of me.

Then, we went home and had giant chocolate cake for dessert!

Happy, Happy Birthday to me!

New Year's Eve

2011-03-12T12:17:00.000-08:00

You really can't go wrong on New Year's Eve with Wii, party food, and balloons!

The boys played Wii most of the night. Dance Party was a big hit (and helped them to sleep well later).

We had lunch bags to open on each hour to make the waiting not take so long. One bag had noisy horns to blow!

One bag had stuff to make NYE crowns to wear for the evening. The other bags had goal setting lists and Favorite Things from the Past Year games.

Earlier in the day, we hung tablecloths from the upstairs banisters to the high window sills in the Family room and filled them with balloons and confetti. The plan was to cut the string at midnight, of course, and let it all fall down on the kids. Sam got a little overeager and cut the string at 10:30 for us, so we had a balloon smashing contest!

When midnight finally came, we celebrated with our 'cheater fireworks' - we danced on bubble wrap!

Christmas Morning 2010

2011-03-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

Every year, the boys beg to open 'just one' gift on Christmas Eve. We try to keep Christmas Eve about Baby Jesus and the scriptures, but in the end, we always cave and let them open one. This year, we made a rule that we get to choose which one they opened. Like dogs with their eyes bulging and tongues wagging, they agreed.

(As a side note, I hate that all of the anticipation of Christmas morning, shaking boxes,
the hours of shopping and wrapping are all over in 30 seconds of mass chaos and confetti
rain comparable to NYE at Times Square.)

So, we let them open one gift - oven mitts. They were a bit confused until we told them that they had to wear them Christmas Morning to open their gifts so it would last longer. They were, um, somewhat amused by us...I guess.

Christmas Morning came and we woke up to the buzz of excitement around 7AM. I wish I had a picture of everything before the boys went downstairs, but we don't. Instead, we have a bunch of pictures with a bunch of toys, a bunch of wrapping paper, and a bunch of smiles.

I almost forgot : one of Sam;s favorite gifts was a little Thomas train from his stocking. He is so cute singing Choo, Choo, the Big Train is Coming Down the Tracks (*cough, cough*)
Sorry it's sideways!

Year in Review

2011-03-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

This is a slideshow we made for Gigi (my Grandma) for Christmas. We took pictures from the entire year and tried to show her what we had been up to for the last 12 months. It's a great Year in Review for our family!

Finally meeting Poison Control

2011-01-18T11:42:00.000-08:00

Josh : Mom, what's this?
Me : What?
Josh : All these medicines on the floor?

Sam's preschool adventure today included emptying the 180 ct. Gummie Vitamins and the 90 ct. Vitamin D bottles in to the carpet. I picked up 66 of 90 vitamin Ds, not sure how many Jared has taken in the last 10-14 days. No clue how many vitamins should be left, it didn't look too much lower than when we passed them out at breakfast.

Me : Sam, did you eat any medicines?
Sam : {hides his face}
Me : Sam, look at my face, I'm not upset I just need to know if you ate some of the medicines.
Sam : {whispers} no

Heck, why am I asking an almost three year old if he ate any gummies when they were just there for the taking? I'm sure he dumped them out and walked away.

PC : Hello, Poison Control
Me : Hi, my 3 year old may have taken some extra vitamins and vitamin D pills while I was being a good preschool teacher, but a bad mom (but please know, I have three other kids and I've never called you before!)
PC : What brand? How many? How many originally? Is he flushed? headache? nauseous?
He's OK. I'll call you back in an hour to check on him. Watch for bright, yellow, odor-full diapers.
Me : Thank you. (p.s. I'm a good mom, I'm a good mom, I'm..a...good..mom, ok, fine, I'm doing the best I can but he's killing me!)

Will there be a day in the near future when Sam doesn't have my heart racing for one reason or another?!?

Doesn't he know I had a birthday, too, and I'm too old for this? My aging heart can't handle it?

For anyone keeping count, the score since January 8th is Sam- 7, Mom-0.
3 bathroom vs. toothpaste incidents
1 bathroom vs. hairspray incident
1 bathroom vs. spray cleaner incident
1 syrup vs. the pantry incident
1 Poison Control incident

2011-01-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, blogging saves lives. Today it definitely saved Sam's. Even though I haven't yet blogged Christmas, I must blog the syrup episode or a small boy may not see his third birthday next week.

And, if you laugh about it, you won't cry.

(I will go back for Christmas and basketball later when we have our own computer back and I'm not working on a loaner.)

Here's the story:

One day, a beautiful, young mother was sitting at the computer in her kitchen. All of a sudden, she noticed a brown ooze coming out from under the pantry door. Worried that soda had exploded in the pantry, she jumped from her chair, threw up the sash...wait, wrong story. She jumped from her chair, threw open the door and saw the Saminator standing there.

Beyond the Saminator, was the blood and guts of our former friend, Mrs. B who was found upside down in the Woot! box full of potatoes.

You could say we had a sticky situation.
It was messy. It was very messy . It was even too messy for a chalk outline.

A chalk outline that could've been drawn with the sugar from the sugar crime scene background.

Premeditation was proven by the peanut butter jar lid in the midst of the carnage and the purple spaceship that had been the Saminator's previous quest tossed to the side of the current crime.

Mrs. B refrained from giving a comment. She was said to be feeling hollow, empty, and at a complete loss for words (or anything else, really).

The Potato Family was evacuated from their box home only to fall right into the middle of the crime scene. A can of green beans overheard the Potato father comment, "The memories of this day will stick with us forever".

Luckily, for the Potato family, they were rinsed and returned to the pantry within an hour. The innards of Mrs. B are long gone and she just sits on the counter wringing her empty hands. A Pantry Community that will be haunted forever.
The Saminator is still on the loose. Witnesses report that he draws his victims in with a charming smile and a need for snacks.

In related news, two toothpaste tubes were reported to have been squoze to death on Wednesday. The first death was reported from the downstairs bathroom where evidence was left on the rug, the toilet, the sink, and the floor.
The second death was found later in the day under the train table kept on the second floor of the house.
A room that is often frequented by...
THE SAMINATOR!

Not-So-Religious Manifestations

2010-12-24T09:45:00.000-08:00

We made Christmas shaped pancakes for breakfast this morning.
As I proudly set our 'fun' breakfast on the table, I told the boys they had to identify the shape before they could eat their pancakes.
Jared took the lead, for which I was grateful...at first.

"Look, I got Santa's butt when he leans over to put the presents under the tree!"

Um, No. That was supposed to be a manger. See the rectangle with the crossed legs? No? I guess it does look kinda like a bum and boots. Well, the rest of them looked exactly like the things they were...I think.

Christmas Cookies

2010-12-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

While the big boys played Monopoly behind closed doors on Thursday, Sam helped me make the Sugar Cookies. We made all kinds of Santas, Snowmen, trains, candy canes, and snowflakes. Once they were baked, they looked more like cookies from the Island of Misfit Toys!

Yay for Snow!

2010-12-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

We woke up to a lot of snow this morning.
We need sleds. Wait - ours cracked, can we get new ones?
And gloves. Where's my gloves?
Why can't I just wear the snow pants that are in the washing machine? I don't care if they're dry!

So much for cleaning the pig sty!

So much for sewing last minute gifts!

So much for starting the baking!

Sam is so excited about snow! He didn't mind the bundling up, either. Maybe that had to do with getting to open an early Christmas present - his new winter coat from Grandma Gigi!

The big boys headed down to The Pit (the irrigation basin thingy around the corner)

Sam and Josh spent the morning sledding. Josh & I built up a nice platform for the sled so Sam could crawl on without it taking off.

a song, a visit, and a lesson

2010-12-20T14:47:00.000-08:00

Cam started piano again at the beginning of December. He found Jingle Bells in one of his books last week and figured it all out by himself. I was really proud of him! (His message is meant for a dvd we were making for his Great Grandma, Gigi)

We also visited Santa last weekend. It was our first (and last) time seeing him at South Towne Mall. They only allow their photographers to take pictures which means I have to pay them. Why should I pay them when I have my own camera? So, I chose not to follow the rules and went upstairs to get a picture. Well, as karma would have it, my pictures didn't turn out that great and now it looks as if the computer ate them all anyways! This is the only one I have as proof that we went. Moral of the story : Follow the Rules! And make back-up copies of your pictures!

Jingle Jam

2010-12-16T15:14:00.000-08:00

The kids have a Christmas concert every year and each grade sings two songs. This year, they choose to perform on Thursday right in the middle of my preschool time. ( I don't know why no one asked my opinion on days...)

Anyways, I showed Jared how to film with the camera and sent him off the make a masterpiece of Josh's very first Jingle Jam. To my surprise, when I looked at the pictures he took, he had filmed all three of the boys singing so I wouldn't miss anything! Here they are for your viewing pleasure!

Josh, Sam, and I went to the afternoon concert and Josh took some awesome pictures. He's a budding photographer!

*There's a good one of Sam and I
*Cameron and his friend, Jordan
*yeah, um...his tushy as taken by him
*his face as taken by him
*tushies of the two guys in front of us
*some kids we don't know
*the airplane and dragon that kept Sam entertained
*Josh's leg and shoe
and
*a guy behind us that Josh was sure had said a
bad word because he was covering his mouth

Stockings, finally!

2010-12-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, I made stockings for Jared and I and our, then, two boys. Since then, we've added two more boys and it seems no one wants to use the pink-ish stocking that was once Mom's. I told them it was more of a fuschia, but still, no takers.
So, last year we changed up the color scheme on our Christmas tree a little (And by we, I mean me. Me changed it, me only one that notices any difference. The beauty of having all boys!) The stockings didn't really match anymore. I wanted to make new ones so my mom offered to take the old ones off my hands. I didn't get the new ones done, so she let us use them one last time before taking them back to Louisiana with her.
Fast forward to this year. We put up the tree. We put out the decorations. Jared hung the lights. But, where in the world are the stockings? Oh hecky! Someone needs to get sewing! So here they are - this year's new stockings, hung a week before Christmas so Josh can relax. Whew! The boys got to pick there own fabric...well, they got to pick their own out of the four fabrics I brought home anyways. My favorite part has to be the giant rick rack. i need to find more projects that call for that stuff!

Catch-Up

2010-12-16T14:17:00.000-08:00

You know it's Christmastime when you're having so much fun there's no time to blog it all. You really know it's Christmastime when your one faithful reader, Mom, doesn't nag you about the blog because she doesn't have time to read it, either!
Here's a quick run down of the last month's highlights:

We celebrated Josh!

He had his 6th birthday on November 21st!
He's getting so big (and tall, too).
He's lost his first tooth.
He loves kindergarten and friends and reading and recess, but not homework or jobs.
He's still crazy about Hot Wheels.
He makes my day every morning when he yells, "Love you, Mom" as he heads for his classroom.

We celebrated his birthday by taking a bunch of his friends to the new jumpy place in town, Monkey Island. I realized that we do too many theme parties when I asked what kind of cake he wanted and he said a 'monkey cake' for fear that any other kind of cake would mix the Monkey Island jumpy place idea.

We celebrated Thanksgiving.
It was a small one, just us and Abby & Manda, but it was so relaxed and worth it. We planned to eat at one but actually ate at three. The rest of the day was spent preparing for Black Friday which started at 11PM at WalMart for us this year. Never been there for the Midnight Buzzer, but it was an exciting adventure!

We celebrated Abby's birthday with velour suits and a Libby-made Swamp People cake.

We celebrated Straight A report cards at Incredible Pizza. Along with being cute and witty, my boys are smart, too.

Do you think Jared would go for Bunk Beds?

2010-11-11T12:32:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about bunk beds. It may be the way to go with Sam & Josh. "Hey!", I thought, "We (mostly Jared) can make that." So, I started looking for plans/tutorials.
I found this :

I want this one for my room. We could put a king size mattress in there, right? And the top bunk could be for scrapbooking and sewing!

There are a lot of castles, but a few of the non-castle beds included this space shuttle.

I'm guessing these kids have pretty big bedrooms to fit bunk beds, a slide and a staircase. I think my kids would sleep outside if they had to if they could get a bed like this!

You should go check the site out. It's called Tanglewood Design. They have other furniture and cabinets on their site, too. But, really, who cares about that stuff?!?

2010-11-11T11:32:00.000-08:00

A friend posted about a giveaway on a friend's blog today. She's giving away 4th row Jazz tickets!! The blog is called Pedaling Fast & Trying to Keep Up. The things I've read so far are really interesting and FREE Jazz tickets could never hurt!

A Star is Born!

2010-11-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight was Opening Night for Cam's play. He has been practicing at the Lehi Council of Arts since mid-September to be part of Dear Edwina Junior. The play is about a girl, Edwina, who gives advice to children that write letters to her stating their problems.
Cam plays Lars, a boy that falls and breaks his ankle in the first few minutes. Later, he does the ad libbing for the Frankenguest song. He also played the 'steel drums' for a song and sang back-up as a pig.

Cam's friend, Lexi, offers to help his broken ankle due to the fact that she's earned her First Aid badge. When he refuses, Lexi tells him she knows CPR and Cam screams! He loved that part!

Here he is playing the steel drum/metal pail during a song dealing with one boy's problem.

The boys got to wear pig noses and sing back-up during a song that answered a letter about how to save money.

After the show, we gave Cam a fun treat of chocolate and Mighty Beanz.

Cam really had a great time tonight. When we were leaving, I told him how great it was and he responded with, "Well, we worked REALLY hard!".
If you want to go, it's fun for the kids and only an hour long so it didn't lose the younger one's attention. The show started tonight and runs at 7PM every night through Saturday in teh building next to Lehi Elementary.

This is the Frankenguest song. It's the answer to a letter written to Edwina asking what to do about a party guest with very bad manners.

I won't forget, Shelby!

2010-11-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Do you love this movie like I do?
Do you remember this scene?

Remember how she cooked the turkey and he was so excited and drool-y and then the neighbor's dogs ran in and ate it?

Shelby thought it would be fun to re-enact it for me today.
I cooked a roast with cumin and chilies all day. We had it for dinner and the boys were excited and drool-y.
Especially my biggest boy. He likes his roasts.
Then, clean-up time came and there was enough for tomorrow's dinner.
More excitement!
Until Shelby hopped up on the island and finished it off.
All of it.
I don't like her.
I really don't.
Not at all.
Can you say Sausage Factory?

Sam's Halloween Goods

2010-11-02T21:03:00.000-07:00

Since this is the first Halloween that Sam actually knew what was going on, we had to get a picture of his candy. He made it all teh way down our street and around the corner a couple of houses before calling it quits. He couldn't have been happier with all of his candy.

Halloween Costumes

2010-10-31T16:16:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs I like to look at is called Sew, Momma, Sew .After all of these costumes, boy, do I feel like I deserve to wear her title for at least a week! I either helped make or made nine costumes this year! There were 2 princesses, one fairy tale heroine, one Disney bad guy, one meat product, one fatality, one UFO, one animal rescuer, and one cave woman.

My nieces wanted to be Princess Tiana and Charlotte LeBouef from Princess and the Frog. Since they are the closest things I have to girls, they pretty much get what they order from me!

My sister, Abby, wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood and needed help with her costume. By "help", she meant she needed someone to take the bed skirt she found at DI and turn it into a skirt! Her roommate, Cindy, is a school teacher and so she fittingly wanted to be Cruella DeVille. I helped with her coat which I think makes it available to all family members!

Jake decided to be bacon. As I heard on the radio the other day, bacon will be his 'first love until his first love comes along'! Cam was going to be King Kong coming out of the top of the Empire State Building, but opted for Man Being Eaten by Shark once he realized you'd be able to see his feet under the King Kong suit. Please don't tell him you can see his feet in this costume!

Josh wanted to be an alien but gave up on it when I would let him wear a mask. We were on our way to the fabric store to get a dragon pattern and fabric when we stopped in the Halloween store next door. I must've done something good that day because right there was an alien costume for only $10! We took an inch off the mask and turned it into a hat and Voila! he was an alien. Perfect except for the mom-guilt that creeped in because his was the only non-homemade costume. So, we made a flying saucer out of cardboard, newspaper, an emergency blanket, and glitter. Now I felt better. This was also Josh's first year to be in the much coveted school Halloween Parade. He was so cute and he beamed through the cafeteria!

And, Sam. Sam, Sam, Sam. Sam wanted to be a fireman, a monster, a policeman, Dora, a monkey, Diego, pretty much anything he heard someone else was going to be. Even a princess at one point, but don't tell Jared. We settled on Diego and made a vest and hair, but I don't think he ever wore the whole costume all together! The best picture of him is the one above with Josh. For Trick-or-treating, it got cold and rainy so he wore a monster suit from the dress up box that Jake wore for Halloween about five years ago. He immediately got into character by chasing Manda around the front yard and growling at her. In this picture, he's wearing the box that his Halloween Potato Head came in for a hat. Lucky kid gets to go to the store alone with mom now that everyone else is in school and it usually works in his favor!

Tamales

2010-10-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

I've wanted to try making tamales for a long time.
I was intimidated.
I tried it tonight.
They were good!
Very good if you ask those at the table that know where their dinner comes from!

When I was little, I told my parents I wanted to be a Mexican when I grew up because I loved Mexican food so much. I think I'm one step closer tonight.

Josh lost his first tooth!!

2010-10-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

Josh's 'big' tooth has been growing in behind his baby tooth for a couple of weeks now. When I first saw it, I asked if the baby tooth was loose. He didn't know! So, we've been wiggling it for a few days now. Wednesday night we sent him to bed and told him to keep wiggling. About five minutes later, he came running down stairs with a giant smile on his face and his tooth in his hand.

In the middle of the excitement, we took a picture. Look how tiny that tooth is!We put it in a baggie until I could get his tooth pillow ready.
I hurriedly sewed his tooth fairy pillow together and ran it back up to his room, but I was too late. There was no chance of waking him up and I didn't dare leave an eyeless tooth next to his pillow for him to wake up to! (I was out of hand-sewing needles to sew on the button eyes.) Lucky for us, the Tooth Fairy leaves a dollar even if your tooth is just in a baggie!

(And, even luckier for us, if Mom is so busy sewing said pillow that she forgets to put the dollar under your pillow, Dad can quickly do it in the morning and when you wake up and catch him, you might just believe that he was 'just checking to see if she really came'!)

One Day Closer to the Sausage Factory...

2010-10-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

Shelby has been making bad choices.
Too bad for her, she's a dog and there are no laws that say I have to put up with her.
Yesterday was bad.
Bad choices everywhere.
Bad, bad, bad.
Shelby wrapped her leash around a bar stool, pulled it over and busted the leg.
Shelby hid my shoe in her yet-to-be-found secret stash spot when I needed to take Cam to Scouts.
Shelby looked me right in the eye and went potty on my preschool rug after I stood outside with her for 20 minutes waiting for her to do her bizness.
Then, for the Grand Finale, Shelby made me angry!

We had a neighborhood party last night.
The boys helped me make a fun dessert.
We were running five minutes late, but I dashed upstairs to brush my hair.
I was fast. Lickety-split fast.
When I came back to the kitchen, I saw someone had licked the frosting off our dessert.
MANDA!!! Did you lick my frosting??
Wasn't her.
Wasn't me.
Wasn't Josh.
Sam was asleep.
Everyone else was gone.
SHELBY!!!
Stupid, stupid, dog. I swear you're gonna end up at the sausage factory!

Evidence Exhibit A

Evidence Exhibit B

Fall Break 'Projects'

2010-10-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've been blog-surfing a lot lately and have realized that like a 15 year old girl, I fall in love very easily. Except, I'm falling in love with things to sew, things to paint, things to glue, etc. Funny that the more things I find to make, the less time I have to make them!
Over the mini-vacation from school, I enlisted some help from the boys and we marked a few Halloween things off my list. They are great helpers when it comes to making icky, scary stuff!

FYI: these are not crafts. I live in a house full of boys and we do not craft. We do projects.

Bubbling Cauldron

Here's the beginning of our cauldron. We just used our Dutch Oven because we didn't have a cauldron and I'm too cheap to buy one!

Josh and Jake did most of the painting. I found out Cam doesn't really like to paint and Sam likes it too much!

Halloween Wreath

Again, I'm cheap and refused to pay $10 for a hideous wreath at WalMart. So, our adventure began with looking for a cheap wreath. On the way to DI, I stopped at Big Lots. Ugly wreaths on clearance for $3.50! Score! We dipped the ping pong ball in glitter and made our cool eyeballs.

Halloween Bats

We found these bats at Crafter's Corner. It's a place in American Fork that sells lots of pre-cut metal for crafts, but also some unfinished wood projects in the back. The boys loved painting the bats and I finished them with some paper, glitter, and tulle.

Halloween Bouquet

Cam and I made this little bouquet for a friend that needed a smile. It probably could've used more chocolates, but, umm...we like chocolate and there were only so many in the bag!

Unknown Milestone & Cornbelly's

2010-10-18T13:38:00.000-07:00

Over UEA weekend, Jake got to go on his first overnighter. It was actually a double overnighter in Heber. I'm all over the milestone thing, 5= kindergarten, 8 =baptism, 12=priesthood & passing sacrament, 16=dating & driving, so I was a little surprised when this one snuck up on me. We packed his things - I nagged about enough blankets, he played it cool and brushed me off. Amazing how well we played our roles on our first try! After he left, I wished I had thought to take a 'before' picture to go with the one I planned to take on his return. As it turns out, there are no pictures. But, he had a god time doing archery, achery-ing, whatever you call it and he did well in the basketball tournament until "some 16 year olds schooled us!" What?!? that's teenager talk! Oh, hecky!

So, anyways, the rest of needed something fun to do, especially because 2 of the 4 of us were really ticked that we weren't old enough (or male enough in my case) to go to work or go to scout overnighters.

Yay for Cornbelly's! Even more Yay! for the $5 off coupons in the school office!
There was so much to do. We were there for almost 3 hours and could've would've stayed longer if I had known you could bring food in. As it was the boys were starving and I refuse to spend $8 on a concession stand burger! We played in the corn, jumped on the giant trampoline, rode the tire horses, slid down slides, rode the train, went through a small maze, sat on pumpkins, play cornball volleyball, and went through a blow-up haunted house. The 3 little guys, or as I was told, the 2 medium guys and 1 little guy had a blast!

This was my favorite picture of the day. Sammers is such an angel when he's only two dimensional!

The boys loved playing in the corn. We spent the most time here.

Cam poured tons of corn down his shirt because he wanted to be the Cornbelly of Cornbelly's!

There was a mountain of pumpkins to climb all over.

Sam tried to hitch rides with Josh & Cam - pedaling in the dirt was a little too hard for him.

The cow train went in 5 figure eights for each ride. Cute little Josh waved and yelled "Mom!!" every time!

The bump slide was a blast!

Josh at the bottom of the bumpy slide.

All three on the roller slide

Josh & Cam kept running to the top and falling down before I could get their picture. That's them in the green stripe on the jumping mat.

Sammers jumping.

The tire swings were the first thing they wanted to try!

Halloween Cruise

2010-10-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

We tried to Prove River Halloween Cruise for the first time this year. Thanks to CityDeals, we found a half price coupon and you know I can't pass up a coupon! Besides, it seemed like a fun way to kick off the month long celebration of Halloween! Our pirate driven boat ride was only about 15 minutes, but that seemed to be the perfect amount of time for the kids. They had lights strung up above us as we went down the river and bunches of jack-o-lanterns along the banks. At one point, a pirate swung out on a rope to warn us to leave and fell in the water. We weren't sure if he meant to fall in which made it all the better with a boat full of boys!

The boys heading to the dock.

Luckily, Jared's kinda tall and he stood up on the boat to get this picture of the pirate that tried to attack us on our cruise.

This is the picture I took of Jared and Sam. Aren't they cute?

And these are the kind of pictures Jared takes of me in return!!!

Josh took this one of me - it looked better on the little LCD screen on the camera! I'm done trying to be in the pictures!

The whole family after our boat ride.

We really wanted to pose with the haunted bone lights, but they're not so scary with the flash.

What is scary is that there are 32 pictures of these two from that evening on my camera!

Manda + Tony Baloney = Love

2010-10-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

The ring - it's so glittery!

Mann and Tony Baloney

Her hand is stuck like that!

The awesome cake we brought home to celebrate. You'll never believe it, but we wrote that ourselves!

Early Temple Announcement

2010-10-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

With General Conference coming this weekend, I felt very privileged to receive word of a new temple Friday morning. Sam, who we all know is saving his money to go see Mickey found a picture of this in a magazine.

Here's our conversation:
Sam : This is temple.
Me: Well, it's actually the castle at Disneyland.
Sam : No, temple.
Me : It's the castle where Mickey lives.
Sam : It's Mickey's Temple!! I take it in the car with us?

Since we had errands to run and little time for it, I gave up on the fight. So, if they announce a new temple in Anaheim in a pre-existing building, you'll know Sammers is receiving some crazy revelations!
This little boy is obsessed with temples lately! Any time Jared and I leave for Date Night, he asks if we're going to the Temple. "I come?", he always begs with puppy eyes.
Last night, we saw a moth on the wall in my bedroom. After discussing what it was, where it usually lives, and how it likes the light, he asked me where the mommy and daddy were.
Me : I'm right here and daddy is on the way home.
Sam :No, the moth's mommy and daddy!
Me : I don't know where his mommy and daddy are
Sam : They're at the temple. (very matter of factly)

BeyBlade Party

2010-09-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

Late in the summer, we applied to host a BeyBlade House Party. If you haven't heard of Houseparty.com, you should check it out. We were chosen as one of a few hundred families around the country to host a party. They sent us a box with five BeyBlades, a BeyBlade Battle Stadium, 15 posters, 15 cds and 15 coupons. We just had to invite a bunch of friends, host a great party, and post some pictures and responses on their site!
The boys were super excited and invited about 25 kids from the neighborhood. (We're a little heavy on boys on our street!) We had about 22 kids show up! Abby and Manda came early and helped us decorate. The boys helped make cookies so the kids could decorate their own treat, and we cooked up a bunch of frozen pizzas.
We played with the BeyBlades and then jumped into a tournament. The boys had a blast!

Thanks House Party!!

Grandma & Grandpa's Visit

2010-09-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

Grandma & Grandpa Louisiana came to visit in September for Baby Grant's Blessing. It was a quick visit - they arrived on Friday the 17th and left on Tuesday the 21st. We went to the Gateway, to Tucano's, and to a neighborhood garage sale, but the only pictures I took the whole weekend were while we were in the canyon.

We started with a photo scavenger hunt. One thing on the list was that everyone on your team had to touch a tree. The goofy faces were just their attempt at the extra mile.

After the hunt, we wandered up the path a little to this great spot with a log crossing the river. The older kids played on it for quite a while before anyone fell in the water. Sadly, it was Kate (4) that fell in and resurfaced with a look of horror on her face. Jake acted fast and pulled her up out of the water.

This is a shot I got of Jake. He looks so old. Where the heck in the world have I been?

We tried for a few pictures of all the kids with Grandma and Grandpa. Between Lib and I we took a bazillion (almost) pictures of this group. I'm hoping hers caught the magic mine seem to have missed.

One last goof before time to go home. Isn't it funny how boys always find the sick of their dreams in the canyon?

Here's the rest of the pictures for G&G:

Two funnies

2010-09-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

Jared recently put the shelves in the entertainment center that we've been working on for, umm, a while. I'm trying to break the boys of their habit of tossing their junk on the bottom shelf. Now that there are other shelves and decorations, it's no longer meant for storage. So, here's how it went tonight:
Me : Boys! Why is there so much of your crap thrown on the bottome shelf?
Cam : Because we couldn't reach the higher shelves!

I give up!

Forget the shelf, let's just read scriptures. Sam throws his foot in my lap while the boys laugh about Jake reading from Jacob...again.
Sam : Mom! Pop my toes-es.
Me : OK.
Sam : Do my baby toe first.
Me : OK
Sam : Do my brother toes next.

"Brother toes" are the three toes between your baby toe and your big toe. Now you know!

But mo-uummm...

2010-09-12T21:25:00.000-07:00

Every week on the way home from church, the boys try to break me. In their sweetest voices, they ask,
"Can we play computer when we get home?"
No!
"Can we watch a Kung Fu Panda?"
No!
"Can we beat each other senseless all in the name of fun?"
No!
(Well, maybe they don't actually ask that last one, but it does seem to happen every Sunday afternoon! )
Anyways, after our usual begging-rejection-whining routine on the way home this week, Cam asked, "But mo-uummm, what are we going to do that's fun?"

I suggested they build me scenes and stories from the Book of Mormon with their legos.
They took me seriously!
It was actually peaceful for a while!
They worked together!
And, they came up with some good stuff!

Noah's Ark

King Benjamin on the Tower

Joshua marching around the city of Jericho

Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail

Samuel the Lamanite on the Wall & really long arrows

Diamond Fork Hot Springs

2010-09-06T20:24:00.000-07:00

For Labor Day, Jared wanted to take us all to see the Hot Springs in Diamond Fork Canyon in Springville. Jared told the kids and I that it was about a one mile hike and there were pools to play in at the end. Meiners' family - do you remember the last hike Jared took us on while we were at Fish Lake? Anyways, for those that haven't noticed, Jared is tall and he has long legs. I think this skews his foot-travel measurements. One mile to 'daddy long legs' is about 3 miles to the rest of us! In our trusting innocence, we packed our lunches, our suits, and our a towels and we were on our way!

Sidenote : I had heard of this hike and springs while at BYU, but I was always warned about the 'old, naked guys' that were there. Hence, one experience I didn't experience. Jared assured me that the old, naked guys don't go in the middle of the day, so I agreed that we would go. (Of course, on the day of, three of the people I tell we're going to the Springs ask me if that's where the naked guys hang out!) Luckily, we didn't see any naked guys *Whew!* but the kids caught wind of my fears along the way and decided to count all the naked guys on the trail - not wearing your shirt
constitutes 'naked'. It was funny that they were quietly keeping count until Josh points and yells out "NAKED GUY!!" as one guy passed by us. Um, yeah, game over!

Anyways, it's a beautiful hike. Tons of green and shade and almost all of it runs by the stream/river. It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there and we overheard someone at the pools say it was really a 2.2 mile hike. The boys had a lot of fun in the pools once we reached the end. They traveled in and out of pools and slid down mossy rocks. Me, I don't care for rotten eggs so much, so I didn't care to swim in water that smelled like them! Just kidding. Honestly, the sulphur smell wasn't too bad. My real reason for not swimming is that I just don't like hot water.

This is us at the beginning of our hike. Clean, free of blood, still smelling like Tide.

The whole trail was gorgeous. We were really surprised by the size of some of the boulders that were in the stream. In some spots, you could still see the regrowth in the path that the boulder took down the mountain.

Sam hitched a ride with Jared most of the way, but we had a rule that he had to hold hands if he walked. He was adamant that he hold only Joshie's hand. I thought they were so cute walking together.

At first site, this looked like shedded snake skin and it was HUGE! But, then we remembered we were in Utah and not the Amazon so it turned out to be just a really awesome tree branch.

Just a few more minutes - we could smell it by this point and the boys were getting a little tired of walking.

We made it! This was the first pool they all hopped into - it was pretty warm and I was surprised they stayed i nit for as long as they did.

At the top of the pools was a little waterfall. Cam went behind the falls and is peeking through a hole in the rock.

This area was built up with rocks like a hot tub. I'm not sure if the adults liked Cameron splashing around but he really needed to sit under the hose and pretend it was a shower!

Sam and Josh hung out with me for a minute until they realized this was as far as I was going in. They soon ditched me for their more adventurous dad.

Sam and Jared in one of the pools that was 'cold right here and warm right there'. That doesn't really make me have happy thoughts about being in that water!The milky color was pretty, though.

This is one of the spots that you could sit and slide right down the mossy rocks. If you look back at the picture above, Jared is sitting right at the top of the slide and Jake is at the bottom of it here.

I'm not sure what he was doing here, but Cameron explored every inch of this place!

It's just a phase

2010-09-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

I seem to go in spurts with hobbies. The last ten years I've been so obsessed with scrapbooking that I only dust off the sewing machine for Halloween costumes and the occasional baby gift or mending. Enter Craft blogs. Given, most of the stuff I want to make is girl stuff (which doesn't fly too well around the Meiners' House), I'm loving my sewing phase. I don't think the boys are as jealous as they pretend to be - I think it's more a concern over the fact that the kitchen table is covered in fabric rather than food!

I saw this cute top on a blog and since my boys refused to wear it, I made it for Grace. Now that I know how to do the shirring with an elastic thread bobbin, I want to shir everything!

See? More shirring! I just lengthened the shirt tutorial to make Kate a maxi dress. Her mom says she's crooked, not the dress, but I think I'll check it out myself next time I there. Who wants to wear a crooked dress?

The boys were a little upset that I was making "everything" for their cousins and nothing for them, so I let Josh run around the house in one of the aprons I made for Preschool. I'm thinking I might need to hem those up a little...

Last but not least, Jared's mom brought us a ton of apricots from her tree. We (I) made tons of fruit leather and syrup. Jake was a good sport and let me take a picture of him eating some pre-shower.

Jake's Arrow of Light & Pinewood Derby

2010-09-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

Jake was awarded his Arrow of Light tonight at Pack Meeting. He was so excited to get his Eagle Feather and is looking forward to getting an arrow to put up on the wall in his room. The Boy Scout leaders came in and welcomed him to Scouts after wards and told him about the meetings on Wednesday nights. What?!? Wednesday nights? That's like mutual or something! Anyways, I guess we're all about merit badges now!

Abby filmed the ceremony for us - hang on a minute, they'll move the flag!

My boys and their cars. Jake made up his own design, Cam wanted a truck, and Josh's is a copy of a Hot Wheels car he loves.

Cam kept an eye on the beginning of the race while his brothers were at the finish line waiting to retrieve their cars.(Jake's car is in the middle lane and Josh's is the red one.) Josh won the Salsa Car Award, Jake won the What's That Car Award, and Cam won the Best Car that's Not a Car Award.

When are school pictures?

2010-09-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

So, I guess my celebratory events were not enough for Josh. He decided to slip-n-slide down our street this afternoon! The neighbor saw him nosedive off his scooter and brought him to me with a bloody nose and this awesome bump on his forehead. He also has a bit of road rash on his chest and stomach. I think I like my way of celebrating better!

After three long years....

2010-09-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Josh started kindergarten today!

This kid has watched his two big brothers go off to school for the last three years and asked me why he couldn't go, too. He's been through three years of mom's preschool - that's three years of three year old class and three years of four old class. (Does that make six years of preschool???) Then, last week, brothers left for school again, without him. He was angry at me for days.

It finally happened!!
Today was the Day!

And, I think these might just be Spirit Hands!

Josh, Dad, and Sam in front of the Big School. I was told after school that it's called Fox Hollow now because he goes to school there. It's not the 'Big School' anymore! And, there's the spirit hands again!

Foxy the Fox was out on the playground to welcome the kindergartners. Josh couldn't wait to get his picture with Foxy.

Josh and Cabe found each other on the playground before lining up this morning. They're not in the same class, but the first thing Josh told me after school was that he got to play with Cabe at recess. They grabbed each other's hands and jumped up and down - they were both so excited to be there. We have ten kids (I think) from our neighborhood in kindergarten this year!

When I asked him what he did today, he said:

I played with Cabe at recess
I made a new friend named Hunter
We read a book about Ms. Barton in Kindergarten
We played "Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar" and I got a turn!
I played with math cubes and made a gun (I'm waiting on a call from the teacher!)
There's lots of girls in my class
I learned that we don't throw the wood chips out of the playground or walk up the slides

(He didn't say anything about me crying so I think I'm safe! Whew!)

After school, we celebrated with lunch at Carl's Jr.
Since it was a celebration, I even let him make his own mixed drink at the soda machine.

We're a two car family again!

2010-08-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

Jared bought a truck today which means I get my car back!

Not that it's all about me, but I'm so excited that I'm making up places to go just so I can drive!

He wanted an older model Toyota Tacoma with low(er) miles and the extra space in the back. We called on this truck Saturday afternoon and it had just sold, so Jared was a little disappointed. Later that evening, the guy called back and said it wasn't 'sold' anymore. Jared's words were, "Unfortunately, I'm out for the evening with my wife". (I'm sure he didn't mean it the way it came out.) Monday, after work, he took care of the details and came home in his new truck! We have two cars again!

When Jared's last car died back in May, Sister Slater gave a talk in church that included a story about a family that had to deal with having only one car. The wife struggled with walking everywhere, in all kinds of weather. When they finally bought another car, she counted the days she had been without a vehicle and compared the experience to the pioneers that had taken the same number of days to walk across the plains. I haven't counted days, but I sure have a new appreciation for the blessings that make our lives so much easier!

2010-08-30T14:07:00.000-07:00

"This is my tongue."

Just so you know.
I saw and heard this all day until I agreed to take a picture.

Baby Grant

2010-08-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

Baby Grant, my sister's fifth baby, was born August 23. I got to go visit a few times and he was always so calm and snuggly. He smells like 'baby', too. Go figure!

Libby and Grant on Sunday - 6 days old

Kate, Miles, Sam, James, and I made the cookies to welcome Grant home. We cut out little boy shaped sugar cookies and Kate later frosted them blue.

The boys' attentioned waned (what do you expect from 3 year olds?) but Kate was still eager to frost cookies for Baby Grant once they were done baking and cooling.

She was also very patient with me and my camera; Kate's really not one for the constant paparazzi!

First Day of School

2010-08-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I just wanted one...

one good picture of the first day

One good picture that told the story of two brothers heading off to 4th and 6th grade to learn and grow ...

and ended with the Back to School walk Cam made up!

Mrs. O'very and Mrs. Bush, they're good boys. Really. Anyways, my thoughts and prayers are with you!

Happy Birthday!

2010-08-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

This little guy turned eleven today!

I remember feeling like time was going too fast when he turned 5!

and, then, it got scary!

(my kooky brain sees numbers like this - in a chart - since I saw my first number chart at a daycare when I was preschool age)

And, things are way serious now because....
We've moved to the next row!

And soon, even though he's only 11 today, it'll be time for a mission and college! Holy batwings, Batman! Time goes way too fast!

Birthday Celebration

2010-08-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

Birthdays seem to last at least a week at our house!
Grandma and Granpa's gift arrived on Tuesday.
Abby brought a gift card that was quickly turned into a Wii game on Saturday.
We had treats on Sunday.
And spent Monday at Cowabunga Bay.

Jake didn't want cake, so we made cream puffs instead Sunday night.

Monday, we had his favorite pizza, Little Caeser's, for birthday lunch.

Monday afternoon, we finally let him open the big box that had been in Mom and Dad's closet all week. Jared came home at lunchtime and Jake's friend, Zach, joined us to go to Cowabunga Bay for the afternoon.

Sorry, there's no pictures of us at the water park, but I didn't trust myself with the camera around water! Just pretend you can see us in this picture I stole from their site!

Simple Math

2010-08-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'm not fast enough + Sam's becoming more independent =

At least I was fast enough with the camera!

Family Picture

2010-08-20T11:49:00.000-07:00

I probably won't be blowing this one up to hang on the wall, but it's rare that we're all in a photo together. I'm usually taking it (unless Jared forces me to be in it and he's taking it). For Dad's work party we were able to go swimming at the Veteran's Park in Provo. They had a couple of water slides that the big boys loved. Sam had a blast in the pool - he was surprisingly, if not scarily, brave in the water!

Pizza Night

2010-08-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

These boys love to make their own pizza. I think they actually love seeing how many toppings they can eat without being caught! Sam, for the first time, insisted on helping so we let him smush the dough and spread the sauce. He thinks he's really big stuff now! As for the other boys it's "one pepperoni for the pizza, one pepperoni for my mouth!"

Glurch!

2010-08-12T12:16:00.000-07:00

Our cousins came to play.
ShelbyDog nipped at their feet.
"Your dog is BAD", said Grace from atop the kitchen table.
"We have to stay up high so she can't get us!", squealed Kate.
Think, Aunt Kelly, Think!!
Glurch!
Let's make glurch and play with it at the island!
Grab a chair and drag it to the island.
Every man for himself!

Miles Man chopping his glurch with a shark knife. There's something about saying 'cheese' that makes him automatically tilt his head to the side. I don't think he can control it!

Kate and Grace, the ballerinas, made pancakes and yummy cake with theirs.

Sam showed his cousins how to stick a straw in the glurch and blow bubbles. Even at two, little boys can figure out how to make dirty body noise sounds with just about anything!

Sam just hamming it up! He's played glurch every day for a week and a half now. Usually for at least 30 minutes at a time. This stuff hold his attention longer than anything else I've found!

Here's the recipe in case you want to try it:
In bowl 1, mix 1 c. water and 1c. Elmer's glue
In bowl 2, mix 1 c. water and 3 tsp. Borax laundry booster soap (I have a lot if you want to borrow)
Pour Borax solution into the glue solution and knead. The more you handle it, the less slimey it becomes. You can store it in a baggie in the fridge for months.

The Next Food Network Star

2010-08-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

Sam is good in the kitchen.
I think he's going to be a Food Network Chef when he grows up.
He does his best work, though, when Jared and I gone.

We went on date night.
Brothers were left to babysit.
Sam decided to make a treat while his brothers played the Wii.
Luckily, when we got home they had cleaned up the mess.

Except...

when I looked in pantry, the buckets that we keep the flour, sugar, beans, and powdered milk in were amiss.

Now, I truly understand that genius is not always understood.
And, I get it that artists sometimes need to set a little messy in order to express themselves.

But, um, good luck using those pinto beans! (Actually, the beans may be the one bucket that can be fixed!)

So, we've been drinking cloudy kool-aid for a week now.
Don't you just love to sit down with a cold glass of kool-aid and wait for the flour sludge at the bottom of your glass to slide into your mouth?
I think the sugar/flour bucket will have to be dumped and refilled.

The flour/sugar bucket, on the other hand, made great zucchini bread last week!

You laugh now, but one day, you'll be walking down the grocery aisle and Famous Chef Sam's picture will be staring at you from a hundred bottles of salad dressing from his very own label.

(or, maybe, you'll just laugh now and I'll keep drinking cloudy kool-aid.)

2010-08-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

Isn't this how you wrap up your lunch?

Science Camp

2010-08-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Science Camp was our last camp for the summer. We had a much smaller group this time, but still just as much fun. I found some great science websites to use for preschool and some just to use with my boys at home.
We made water bottle scuba divers, clean mud, vinegar volcanoes, flubber, ooblick, glurch, helicopters, straw planes, liquid density jars, etc. The kids all had a blast!

Kelsey, Sam, and Trayce playing with their glurch.

Taylor and Whitney with the nasty Flubber. It's made with Metamucil and water, so I had to wonder what this does to your insides if you drink the stuff!

Trayce, Sam, and Kelsey throwing their helicopters from the bridge. This was the best because they'd throw them down, rund downstairs to retreive them, run upstairs to throw the again. Repeat. I'm pretty sure Sam took a good nap that day - made me like science a little more :).

Sam's Plans

2010-08-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning, Sam came into my bathroom and turned off my hair dryer to let me know he was going to 'Dinnyland' to see Mickey Mouse and Goofy. He had found a park map that I had saved from our trip last December. He told everyone in the house that he was going and followed it up with, "ya wanna come?" I worried that he wold lose interest before I could catch it on camera, but, last night he stood by Manda's car waiting to go to Dinnyland and now, Tuesday morning, he's still telling me about 'Dinnyland'! Anyone want to sponsor a trip for Sam?

Lagoon Day!

2010-07-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

We had such a blast at Lagoon! Our family + Manda +Abby + Manda's friend, Sam, spent the day riding rides and playing in the water. Cam is getting braver and trying things that scare him like the big roller coasters. I was so proud of him for going on Wicked! Josh,on the other hand, can't get tall enough fast enough for some of the rides! He's dying to go on every upside down ride and luckily, he barely made the 46 inch cut-off requirement to ride most of them.Sam was able to ride more than we thought he would and once he found something he liked, he had to ride it 2 or 3 times! Jake loved riding everything, he just couldn't get off the last ride and onto the next one fast enough!
While Jared and Sam napped, the rest of us went to Lagoon-A-Beach for a couple of hours. We hadn't been to the water park part before, but the boys had fun on the waterslides and the cold water worked it's magic so we could stay at the park for another 6 hours! (Sorry there's no pictures of the water stuff, but you're better off. Believe me!)

A huge THANK YOU to Uncle Craig who got us Alumni priced tickets and to the dentist that gave us back our overpayment so we could go!

Cedar Hills Park

2010-07-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

How many new parks can we go to this summer?
It's kind of become a challenge!
This park is in Cedar Hills - some friends went for Wacky Wednesday and we missed it, so we went for FHE.
There was a playground and plenty of grass for kicking a soccer ball, but I took all of my pictures while the boys played in the stream.

Sam collected a bazillion rocks just so he could throw them back in the water and make splashes.

Jake (unknowingly doing a KMart pose for Aunt Libby) and Sam. Jake taught Josh how to skip stones in the creek - wish I had a picture of that!

Josh and Cam collected a bazillion rocks, too. They must get it from their Grandma Louisiana. They thought they were going to bring them all home, but I think that's where most of Sam's collection came from!

Impress your kids!

2010-07-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

What would happen if you put a bar of soap in the microwave?

Yep! Your kids would think you're pretty cool!

(we put a bar of Ivory in the microwave for 2 minutes.It got so big that we tried a quarter of a bar for 1 minute and still had awesome results!)

Cooking Camp

2010-07-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

Our second summer camp that the boys helped me do was a cooking camp. I got a few pictures of the 6 younger kids I had in the morning class. For the afternoon class, I was planning on five Monday morning and ended up with twelve by the time class started at 1:00! So, I didn't have much time to grab the camera with that many cooking friends!
The younger kids (3-5) made Nilly Dillyicious Pops, Ants on a Log, Play-Doh, and a few other things.
The older kids (6-10) made French Bread, Calzones, Turtles, Dillyicious pops, Glurch, Play-doh, Baggie Ice Cream, and a bunch of other stuff !

2010-07-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

Cam's 9. What happened to 8? Or 7 for that matter?

Cam is my passionate one - whether he's excited or angry, he's passionate about it! You know how he's feeling without a doubt.
Cam is also very creative. He likes to make things out of other things that are made out of other things. Get it?
Cam loves macaroni & cheese, web dinner, and pizza.
Cam is really good at math and memorizing math facts.
Cam is crazy about Batman and MightyBeanz right now.
Cam is seriously the wittiest kid I know! He's always coming up with goofy things to say and funny expressions. He makes his brother shoot drink through his nose at dinner on a regular basis. Just last week, his aunt was quizzing him on family relations and asked him what her husband would be called if she ever got married. His answer : CRAZY!

We went to a pizza buffet for Cam's birthday dinner. He couldn't eat it fast enough!

We went over to the Water Pad in Highland after dinner to celebrate some more.

This is some pose the boys have made up during their karate training sessions. None of them are in karate anymore, but they train together. Train for what I'm not really sure. But, they train a lot. And, they do this pose together at the end of training sort of like a Charlie's Angel thing, I think.
(Anyways, it's posted now for future blackmailing needs.)

Cam's 9th Birthday

2010-07-10T10:50:00.000-07:00

If Cam could have it his way, we'd have a Batman party every year for his birthday! But, I've run out of ideas and Batman parties lead to Batman gifts and I really don't think there's anything Batman left that he doesn't have already!
So, we had a Drive-In Theater Party for his birthday. We played some movie trivia games to earn tickets for the concessions and prizes to take home. The kids also had to use their tickets to enter the 'theater'. Jared brought the projector outside and we watched How to Eat Fried Worms on a panel of the fence.

He asked for a Popcorn Bucket Cake (and he didn't really care that the stripes were slowly melting into one another).

He loved his Matching shirts Manda made for him!

I LOVE how excited Cam gets about every gift! He squeals over underwear from his aunt just as loud as he squeals over the watergun or MightyBeanz he was dying to get! There's no way you can come to his party and not feel like you are his favorite. He is so good about making sure every guest is welcomed.

Shelby

2010-07-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

Reasons we now have a dog:

1. The boys have wanted a dog for sooooo long. Especially the boy in the first picture.
2. Manda has wanted a dog for sooooo long and we've kinda accepted her as the boys' sister.
3. One day she'll have puppies and pay for herself.
4. It may be the only way there's ever a girl baby in the Meiners' house.
5. Manda and I made the mistake of holding the puppies in the WalMart parking lot. Suckers!

Jake and Shelby - he's in Heaven, doesn't even complain about cleaning up poo!

Shelby and Sam - best friends and worst enemies!Sam doesn't enjoy having his toes or ears bitten and Shelby doesn't enjoy being picked up by his head or toes!

Such sad, droopy eyes. Manda says she's depressed - may she needs a sodie.

She likes to chew on EVERYTHING! Toys, shoes, ponytails, children, etc.

Internet Wisdom

2010-07-09T12:19:00.000-07:00

Sam has been walking around this morning with his thumb hooked in his jaw pulling it out and saying, " Owwie". I checked it out and I think he has a canker sore. Seems a little young to me, so I Googled it, of course, because the internet knows everything!
Come to find out, the babycenter.com says 2 year olds can get cankers. And, according to the picture on their site, it really helps if you stick your dirty finger in their mouth!

Deee-scusting!

addendum : k, so I've worried about it all afternoon and I have to make sure you all know that's not my picture! His owwie isn't that bad and my hands are never that dirty!OK. Whew! Now I can stop worrying about what you all think of me!

Camping Trip!

2010-07-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

The boys were very eager to try out the new Father's Day tent so we took it for a spin this weekend.We were only there overnight, but it was plenty of time to play in the fire, make a new friend, and go fishing.

The fire was the first thing we had to do after getting the tent set up. And, all five boys looked for things that cold be burned. Pyros!

Josh took a picture of Sam and I roasting our marshmallows.

Cam was really proud of his "Perfect Marshmallow". It was soooo golden, until he ate it!

Sam made a new friend in the chipmunk that previously owned our site. He immediately named it Cookie and called to it the entire time we were there. If you find the rock in the grassline and follow that curve to the part that's sticking out, you'll see Cookie.

Saturday morning, we packed up and drove back to Tibble Fork to fish. Well, I read and Sam fell in teh cold water, but the boys and Jared fished. Josh was the only one to get a couple of bites, but they all got away.

This is the Place...

2010-06-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

...to learn about discipline! We went to the This is the Place with friends from our neighborhood on Wednesday. One of our favorite buildings was the schoolhouse. Jake and Cam both got to help with the demonstration.

We learned that there were 3 kinds of naughty in the Old Days:

1. For a minor mistake, you could stand on a stump in front of the class with your nose to the wall and your arms out behind you holding two heavy books.
2. For a foolish mistake, you could wear the Dunce hat in front of the class. See how sad Jake is?

3. For a major mistake, you got to lean over a stool and be paddled by the teacher in front of everyone! It may look like he's laughing, but Cam is crying, really.

There were so many fun things to do there and we only did about half of them in the 3+ hours we were there. We rode ponies, made beaded bracelets, beat rugs, used a wash board to do laundry, visited an Ironsmith, potted for gold (I called it 'panning' and was corrected), and rode the train. The boys liked it enough that we may go back again this Summer. If you want to go, go on a Wednesday - it's only $2 a person through the summer and it included everything I listed.

2010-06-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome Saturday at the Lehi Parade and later at the Highland Water Pad with our aunts, cousins, and friends. We opted out of the post-parade carnival this year due to budget cuts, but I think the kids had just as much (if not more) fun playing in the water and not waiting in line!

Here is most of the group - family, cousins, aunts, one friend. Sorry, Zellers, you tried to distance yourselves from us and you didn't make the cut in the pictures! Hey! Who's empty chair in the middle of the photo? Iggit!

Sam was so excited as each float came by but he would get really annoyed when I tried to take his picture. He really liked the parade. Honest.

Talk about liking the parade! Manda was outta control, but she made some hot & tired kids on the floats smile and she earned us lots of candy so CARRY ON!

Cute Katie caught a hat from one of the floats. Luckily she had pigtails to help hold it up on her head!

I think this was the winner of our family vote on the floats.They knew immediately that it was from UP! called out to the characters riding on the float = more candy!

The candy was a little melty, but that doesn't stop my boys. We are NOT wasters! All three of the big boys needed a picture like this, but I will spare you the ickiness and post only one.

We loved the Water Pad in Highland.Look how cute Abby was for the first few minutes before she taken prisoner and drenched by the boys!

Miles was very eager to share his cantaloupe. I'm pretty sure this piece he shared with me had already been 'tested'.

The boys had such a great time playing Frisbee and soccer with Jared. The Frisbee landed on top of the control building, so Jared and Jake had to go on a rescue mission.(P.S. I sunscreened everyone except Jake - don't know how he got away - but, the poor kid is a lobster today!)

I'm really not playing favorites by posting two pics of Kate, but I think these are the only two pictures I have taken of her in four years where she actually looked at me and smiled! Isn't she cute!

Sam and James being rebels! Utah law states that you can't swim in public without a swim diaper. Lucky for us, Jared ran to Kohler's and found a pack of swim diapers for us to all share.

Sam explored every inch of the place! He loved the drains, the fountains, the taped off area of grass, and the water. I love this age - he's so curious about everything right now!

Father's Day Surprise

2010-06-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Me: "What do you guys want to get for Dad for Father's Day?"
The boys :"Let's get him a tent!"
Me : "Tents cost a lot of money. Any other ideas?"
The boys:" We want to go camping and we need a tent. Can we use the Jug Money?"
Me : " Really? The Jug Money?"
The boys : "Yep."

Jake received a refillable water jug with pennies in it for his 8th birthday almost three years ago.We've been adding to it over the last 3 years - coins, pesos, broken toys, cotton balls, etc.

We took it to the bank three times .
The first time it was closed.
The second bank didn't have a sorting machine.
The third time two tiny bank teller ladies hefted the jug and about died as they emptied all the coins into the sorter machine.

They had $166.18!!
(We put $140 back into Mom's account and they split the remainder)

Here they are with Dad after he unwrapped his gift. We wrapped it real fancy in some blankets! We chose this one because it would fit 8 people and it was really fun to play in while we were at the store.

The boys decided to give it to him Saturday so we could sleep in it that night. They were excited to help set it up.

Sam was a great help as you can imagine! The coolest part of the tent is the screen ceiling. We laid out and watched the stars until the boys fell asleep.

Then I went to my real bed inside!
Jared and Sam joined me about 2:30 a.m.
Cam came in around 6:30 a.m.and crawled in my bed at mine and Jared's feet.
Jake and Josh woke up at 7:30, jumped on the tramp, and went back to sleep.
Then, we did it all again Sunday night!

Water Fun

2010-06-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

It was finally warm enough for our First Swimsuit & Water Day! Sure, it only got to 69* today, but the sun was out. The boys all shivered and had blue lips by the end of the day, but does that really matter when memories are being made?

Trevyn, Josh, Trayce, and Cameron daring to get close enough to get wet.

Sam and Trevyn loved trying to catch the ball as it shot out of the tunnel.

Josh is soooo cool! You wish you were him!
He wore those sunglasses all day while we were in the water.

Bridal Veil Falls

2010-06-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

We were able to go to the Falls today with some friends from our neighborhood/ward. The weather was beautiful and the boys had a great time riding their scooters and playing in the water.

If you look in the center of this picture, you can see Jake's bright blue t-shirt. He climbed up a ways with his friend, Jayden, and I caught them on the way back down.

The water was still pretty cold so Cameron took Sammers across the water to sit on the rock.

Josh is my model child - "mom, take my picture!", "Mom, take this picture!", "Mom, get one of me here!"

Sam was dying to get in the water, but not bold enough to venture in to the cold!
(That's my Jocelyn, next to him, from my Primary class - she's the one that asked me if my mom ever helps me with my hair. When I told her my mom lives far away, she volunteered to come help me on Sunday mornings!)

A big group shot of all the kids that went. We had a picnic at the park afterwards and finished our adventure just in time for a storm that was coming in. Thanks Hollie for planning and inviting us, we had a blast!

Draper's Incredible Pizza Company

2010-06-15T18:18:00.000-07:00

We had the car today, so we needed to go somewhere fun! We set a spending limit, did our chores, and set off for fun at the new Draper's Incredible Pizza Company. It was even better than we had expected! Here are some of the highlights:

People in costumes met us at the door and sang Happy Birthday to Aunt Manda. Then, she got to spin the Wheel and won a pass to ride the go-karts!
They load your 'tokens' on a debit card which also stores the number of tickets you win so there's no losing token or forgetting to get your tickets.
The card holds money to play games and you can add 'attractions/rides for extra. Luckily we had a coupon (no kidding!) and they each got a free attraction. They chose mini-golf and go-karts between the three of them. They could've also chosen mini-bowling, bumper cars, or laser tag.
It's only been open 3 weeks, so it was really clean and not too crowded.
There was a play land for Sam so he was busy while the big boys played games.
Jake was equally thrilled with the game area as he was with the buffet. It's all kid food! Pizza, tacos/nachos, spaghetti, sloppy joes, nuggets & fries, ice cream, etc. After getting your food, you get to choose one of four rooms to eat in. We chose the Drive-in. I think the others were Family Room, School Gym, and 50's Diner.

It was super kid-friendly and all of the employees were really helpful and happy. (Especially the go-kart technician that Manda invited to eat lunch with us!) It was a lot of fun and the kids were happy and exhausted at the end. What more could you ask for?

Manda's Birthday Slideshow

2010-06-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Manda turned 25 yesterday so we had to dress up like cheerleaders for her Sister Party. When it's your day, you get to choose the attire and the restaurant. I guess we shoulda been happy with the Laura Croft:Tomb Raider theme, but we whined and now we're wearing pigtails and face paint!Enjoy the awesome slide show Lib put together!

What else will these boys think up???

2010-06-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

My boys come up with some of the craziest ideas. And, egged on by their dad and their uncle, they act on them!

May Recap

2010-06-09T22:45:00.001-07:00

It's been so long since I've posted anything! Here's a quick recap of May and the beginning of June. (I wish I knew how to do it in reverse order!)

Are you using coupons yet?

2010-06-09T22:34:00.001-07:00

I love couponing! We used a lot of our food storage while Jared was out of work and I've been slowly building it back up. This week, a new grocery store in town sent out FREE coupons for hot dogs, buns, chips, and soda. Now, usually, I would advise against getting tons just in the name of good manners - save some for the other shoppers. But, this sale has been going for a week now and there were still stacks and stacks of groceries to be had!
We found a bunch of extra ads just by asking people that weren't going to use them if we could have theirs. And, I have to admit, we did rummage through a couple of recycle bins. But, before you judge me, look what I got for
FREE!!!!

11 pkgs of hot dog buns
11 pkgs of hot dogs
11 bags of chips
11 cases of Shasta

for free!

And, whilst we we rummaging through the recycle bins, we found some "$10 of your purchase" coupons for Kohl's. So, we stop by there tonight, too. The boys needed some shorts and we found some great things on the clearance racks.

We got 3 pairs of shorts, 2 t-shirts, 1 button down shirt, 2 pkgs of underwear, and a pair of Levi's all for $9.74. Those two muchkins in the back were already paid for.

I'd have to say it was a pretty good shopping night for us!

Summer Camp - June 7

2010-06-09T22:30:00.000-07:00

This summer I decided to do a Summer Camp at the house. This month we're doing a bug theme. We have ten friends in our morning session that are all 3-5 years old. Jake and Cam are my camp counselors. I've really been impressed at how well they work with all of these little kids. Maybe I should home school them so they can help me with preschool during the school year.. nah, just kidding. We'd all go crazy!

Utah Lake Festival - June 5

2010-06-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

We're all about free at our house. So, when Lib emailed us Utah Lake Festival, we were all over it! The boys each received a booklet to gather stamps in as they visited each booth. Once the filled up their booklets, they got a FREE t-shirt. Then we got in line for a FREE hot dog and a FREE water bottle. There were so many fun things to do and they were all FREE!

it!
We climbed trees.

We went to see the giant hot air balloon, but right as we got there, they began to deflate it. So, we hung out in the shade for a while.

We played on the beach. Well, not really. It was a sand volleyball court, but it was cleaner than the beach so we let Sam play for a little while.

We went on a hayride around the marina and out to see the lake. We saw lots of people fishing.

We found lots of interesting booths to visit and we learned about fishing, conservation, wildlife, and how to get FREE stuff!

Memorial Day - May 31

2010-06-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

Abby and Lib + all her people came over for Memorial Day. The good part of not having a backyard is that we can build a fire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows on holidays. I know you're all jealous! (I'm trying to look at the bright side of no grass, so pretend you're jealous. k? k.)

While we were BBQing the burgers, Brother Dodge came by to give the boys a ride in the jeep. He is such an awesome home teacher! All 4 boys hopped in along with all 4 of their cousins! That added to Brother Dodge and his grandson, Jack, and Ivan the Dog! It was like a clown car! The kids had such a great time even though it was a very short ride to the end of the street and back.

We roasted marshmallow and Starbursts out in the backyard until the Lehi Wind started up. The kids were worn out by bedtime which is always a sign of a good celebration!

Last Day of School - May 28

2010-06-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

The last day of school is only and hour and a half for us. So, the kids were home by 9:30 and ready to be entertained. We decided to go to the Wood Park and have a picnic with our cousins. The boys had a blast and all three of the big boys were so good about taking turns helping Sam and pushing him on the swings.

We had a great time until about one o'clock. Cam stared feeling sick to his stomach and was throwing up by the time we got home. We spent the next couple of days, our first of Summer Break, taking turns with the throw ups. Yuck! But, at least we got that over with and now we can have fun!

Happy Birthday Jared - May 26

2010-06-09T21:59:00.000-07:00

This birthday will be memorable for Jared, if for no other reason than his cake! I really can make cakes. I'm good at it. I think...Anyways, we bought the stuff to make cream puffs for his birthday. The boys were all geared up to help make them. Then, the morning of his birthday, Jared mentions that he doesn't want a silly cake, 'just round'. So, we tried to incorporate cream puffs and round cake.

We learned something VERY important:

Whipped cream will melt even in the fridge!

Go ahead, laugh at it.
Laugh at the ugly cake.
At least it tasted good!
And now, you won't need to laugh at me next time you see me!
(In my defense, I grew up in a Cool Whip family.)

Dance Festival - May 25

2010-06-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

We were a little worries about the Dance Festival when we woke up the morning before with snow on the ground! Luckily, by Tuesday, the weather was great.

Jake's class did a dance similar to the Virginia Reel. He never could remember the real name, but he was not real thrilled with having to hold hands with a girl!

Cam's class did the Maypole. He wore his suit pants and dress shirt because they were supposed to wear 'nice' clothes. But, he had 'real' clothes in his backpack to change into.

Roasting in the Canyon - May 19

2010-06-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

Manda went hiking in the canyon the previous weekend and told us we needed to go up for an evening. Being that she's our only girl and our oldest child, we try to listen to her. It was so green and gorgeous. Manda had scoped out a beautiful picnic area right near the river.

The boys built a big fire.
We roasted.
We ate.
We argued over what we could throw in the fire.
It was fun!

Manda and the boys

Cam & Jake
Jake is outgrowing the 'funnyface in every picture' phase, but Cameron is just getting into it! This is why our last Family Photo was 5 years ago!

This bridge went from the parking to our picnic site. That's Sammers (with Manda close by, just out of site of the camera). The river was mesmerizing for all the boys, big and small.

Petting Zoo - May 14

2010-06-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

Our Thanksgiving Point pass is running out at the end of May so we have to take advantage of it as much as possible these last few days. Sam asks to see the horses every day! We took Trayce and Trevyn with us today and the animals were very friendly!

Sam, Trayce & Trevyn Josh petting the miniature horse

This little goat had pulled away the fencing near the corner pole. Sam had fun petting him and got a kiss that went from his chin to his forehead!

Of course, I forgot to bring quarters for the corn vending machine. The boys didn't mind, though. We scavaged for corn that other kids had dropped in the grass and got to feed the animals for free!

Juice can lids

2010-06-03T13:14:00.001-07:00

I'm collecting juice can lids and bottoms for preschool. I'll come pick them up if you let me know you have some. Thanks!

2010-05-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

Overheard on the way to Church last Sunday:

Cam - "I think this ball is made of rubber."

Josh - " Well, I'm made of Heavenly Father!"

Baby Josh at 3 months - Feb. 2005
(recently arrived from Heavenly Father)

2010-05-17T07:07:00.001-07:00

I was gonna write something witty about the price of the items below, but they're doing double coupons over at Smith's and I haven't got time to waste on the silly computer!

After coupons, rewards, etc, I paid $7.69 for all of it. Pretty good deal, huh?!?

Now, I gotta get to Smith's!

The Price WAS Right!

2010-05-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

We're starting a new segment here on the blog.
It's really for my own entertainment, but you have to play along or it will be really boring.
It's called
The Price Was Right!

Here's the promo shot that will be running on all the major networks later today:

Yep, that's me and Bob.
You never knew I had such a rockin' body under all those hoodies and jeans, huh?

So, the way to play the game is I go shopping and score a deal that I feel is worth bragging about. You simply leave a comment with how much you think I spent. Quit moaning - you know you love this stuff! Oh, come on, it will just take you a second and it makes me feel even better about the deal I got. The winner will receive a free Photoshop one-on-one lesson with me!

Here's today's deal: 6 boxes ice cream sandwiches, 6 Sunny D's, 3 HVRanch dressings, 8 chocolate bars, a 4lb. bag boneless skinless chicken, carrots, salad, tortillas, toothpaste, and Oscar Meyer hot dogs. I will tell you it rang up for $71.22 before cards, coupons, child trades, etc.

Let the bidding begin!

2010-05-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

Sam peed off the bridge today. All over my coupons, a little on the couch. He thought it was funny.

I went over the budget today. Jared called and told me he had to pay $400 to register his car. $400 from where? Your secret we're-rich-and-Kelly-doesn't-know-it account?

There's no diapers left. Who used the last diaper and didn't tell me?

I'm having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Then, I heard this on the radio:

Sounds like life to me it ain’t no fantasy
It’s just a common case of everyday reality
Man I know it’s tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy
It sounds like life to me

See, country music can fix everything.
What am I whining about? I've got it pretty good!

The pee is cleaned up. And, only one of my six sets of coupons had to be trashed. And, Sam gave me loves.

We have money in the budget for our needs, maybe just not our wants.

I found a $10 WalMart gift card that I had forgotten about so I got the diapers for free.

I'm blessed to be having an ordinary, watched over, pretty good day!

Not-so-gentle reminder

2010-05-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

DON'T GIVE SAM CAPRI SUN TO DRINK!

Maybe this wouldn't have been so bad if
* I hadn't been exhausted from throwing up all day yesterday
* He hadn't just brought me a handful of 'diaper fillings' five minutes earlier
* He hadn't torn off his diaper and peed on the bathroom floor just so he could flush the toilet (after the aforementioned diaper episode)

So, please, next time you see me, don't tell me he's a handful. Really, you have no idea!

Thanks, Grandpa!

2010-04-28T14:34:00.000-07:00

The jerky you sent arrived today.
It looks nasty.
It smells nastier.
Mom's gonna puke.
Ooohh, exotic animals - bison and elk.
We love it!
Mom is seriously gonna puke!
It's gonna be awesome!
Thanks, Grandpa!

2010-04-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

We've been having growing pains at our house. The kind of hurts that come with growing up and realizing it takes work to be a friend. Jake's had a tough time lately with a group of his best friends. We've talked about friendship, apologizing, being open to others' suggestions/ideas, and maybe not following mom's sarcastic ways with everyone (not everyone appreciates this special gift).

Yesterday, Jake came home and asked if he could make brownies for a friend. I tried not to pry as I helped. Once they were cooled and cut, he set out three plates. "Why three plates?", I asked.

"I want to take brownies to X, Y, and Z and tell them I'm sorry for whatever I did to make them mad at me and tell them that I still want to be friends."

I'm so proud of Jake for thinking of a positive way to handle this. When we discussed apologizing, he was adamant that he'd done nothing wrong (stubborness is another gift he received from me). It took a lot for him to apologize and the idea to make treats was just icing on top. He's growing up. ~sniffle sniffle~