The Picanco Family

Snow Finally

2012-02-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

In January, we got a really big snow storm. We ended up getting over 6 inches on our driveway. The boys were so excited to go play in the snow that day. They loved getting dressed in their snow things and had a ton of fun "shoveling" the snow that day.

Bauer

Keagan

Deker

Tractors

2012-02-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we got a package in the mail from my sister, Vera. She had been to Kohls and they were having a really good sale on kids clothes. Inside the box, was a shirt with a tractor on it, a pair of pants and very cool tractor silverware sets for each boy. There was also a church outfit for Keagan. Needless to say, the boys were in heaven.
The next morning, we used the silverware the next morning for breakfast. Here are the boys, playing with their tractor silveware while I made breakfast.

Eating our eggs with the Telehandler forks and Bulldozer Pushers.

Eating our cereal with the Front End Loader Spoons.

Here are the three boys dressed in their new tractor shirts.

And of course, doing their silly pose.

Here is Keagan in his new church suit from Aunt Vera. He absolutely loves it and wears it every week and talks about it throughout the week.

Thank you, Vera, for such an amazing package! There have actually been some times when the kids have had friends over and they have gotten out their silverware to show their friends.

Book of the Month Club - January

2012-02-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

Andrew's brother, David, and his family had our family for Christmas. They gave us an amazing gift. It was a "Book of the Month Club" for kids. There was a bag for each month with a book, list of activities and a few items to go with the activities.

For January, the book was Dino Train. When I opened the bag and read the list of activities I was so excited to get started. One Friday in January, we read the book after naps. Here is our dinner that night. Dino Eggs and Dino Chicken Nuggets.

Here is our Dino Dig that we did after dinner. I baked the cake mix with the dinosaurs in it. We then got to eat the cake for Dessert.

A few days later, we did the snack train. Andrew cut egg cartons length wise for 6 "train cars". I set out six different small snacks. The boys take their trains down the table and fill up each car with their snacks.

We also made a train tunnel that we could crawl through and played other train games.

We loved the month of January and can't wait to see what February has in store for us. Thank you David and Leah for such a wonderful gift!

The Life of a Box

2012-02-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

Andrew and I finally bought a new stand for our TV. We found a really good deal on one online and we were able to get free shipping. The boxes arrived on a Friday afternoon, while the boys were taking naps. Since Andrew was gone, they didn't get opened until Sunday. Here are the ways that we used these particular boxes.

First, we made a "maze" for the boys to have fun with.

Later we added blankets so that the boxes could be a fort and a tunnel.

Then on Sunday, when Andrew was putting the TV Stand together, the boys brought their tools downstairs to cut the boxes.

The boys had so much fun that it made me wish we could get boxes in the mail every week.

New Year's Eve, Aquarium & Riding Giraffes?

2012-01-06T11:17:00.001-07:00

We decided to stay at home for New Year's Eve this year. After naps, we all got our sweats/comfy pants on and we got out our party hats and noisemakers. We had fun playing games and eating snacks. After we put the kids to bed, Andrew and I watched a movie, attempted to put together a puzzle and then went to bed shortly after midnight.

On Monday since Keagan was out of school and Andrew didn't have to work, we took the kids to the Aquarium that recently opened. Keagan, of course, was afraid to even put his hand in the water, but he did have fun looking at everything. Deker LOVED it and would touch everything. Bauer LOVED it was well, hought it was especially cool and got really wet plaing in the water.

As I mentioned in my Christmas post, the boys got really big, cool Pillow Pets that they absolutely love. Bauer is funny because he is just barely taller than his pillow pet Giraffe. He thinks it is fun to hug it, put it on the ground and proceed to sit on it. It is so funny to watch him.

Christmas Happenings

2012-01-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

The week before Christmas and Christmas was very exciting at our house. The boys were beyond excited and had sooo much energy, it was hard to keep somewhat calm.
The Monday before Christmas (second to last day of school), the kindergartners got to have a PJ day and watch Polar Express. All of Keagan's pj's were from last year or handed down and were not really suitable for walking to school/playing outside for recess. I tried to convince Keagan that he could wear sweats and he insisted that is was Pajama Day and he needed to wear pajamas. So, the Friday before, we stopped in at Wallyworld, found a pair of warm Pj pants and a long-sleeve black shirt. That night, we used my Silhouette to cut a rocket shape (Keagan's choice) out of heat transfer. He was so excited to wear PJ's to school.

We finally got around to making this Gingerbread Train kit that Andrew found and couldn't resist buying. The boys LOVED the train.

We started a tradition a few years back to have Christmas Tree french toast on Christmas Eve. Andrew was at work, so I made them for the boys and they were so excited about eating their Trees.

After Andrew was gone most of the week, I was so excited to have him home on Saturday about lunch time. Man it is hard to keep up with three already active boys when they have the excitement of Christmas. My Parents drove up to spend Christmas with us. They got here on Christmas Eve afternoon. For dinner we had Christmas Tree and Candy Cane pizza. The boys LOVED that as well.

Our tradition of getting new PJ's for Christmas. We made the pants and used my handy dandy Silhouette to fancy up the shirts. They Say Dear Santa, Define "Good".

"Santa" made the boys a workbench and gave them tools to go with it. Santa (courtesy of our friends Marshall and Brogan) also gave the boys each a tractor.

For Breakfast we had our usual Santa Pancakes.

All the boys loved their presents. Some of the highlighs of the presents they each got a construction/hard hat complete with a light, new blankets (because they are huge blanket boys and Keagan and Deker's old ones were wearing out), and possibly one of their favorites Pillow Pets from Grandma & Grandpa Smith and various tractors and cars

We were so grateful on Christmas to have 11:20 church and that we didn't have to rush out the door. It was nice to be at church on Christmas, even though I had to play about 7 songs on the Organ.

It was so fun to have my parents here visiting and spending Christmas with them. They had to leave on Monday because my Dad had to be back to work on Tuesday. We all had a fantastic time with them here.

The Highlights

2011-12-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

I have been a seriously bad blogger. There were lots of little things that I wanted to put on my blog, but nothing big that drove me to it. So I am finally just adding the highlights of things we have done so far.
Andrew's sister, Anna and her husband Chris were in town at the end of november for a visit. We enjoyed having them visit with us for an afternoon/evening. We even decorated gingerbread houses.

Bauer LOVES to put on Daddy's boots (or any of daddy's or mommy's shoes for that matter).

When I was preganant with Bauer and Andrew was gone on Wednesday nights every week, I started doing Picnic in the living room/movie nights most Wednesday nights (Here is a post I did about it then). We would eat dinner in the living room while watching a movie. About the time that Bauer was born Andrew started being gone two nights a week and with having a new baby, we didn't do that anymore. With the colder weather, we have since started doing this once in a while. Here are the boys enjoying dinner and watching their movie.

Just like his two older brothers, Bauer LOVES tractors and LOVES any book that has any sort of tractor/truck/dump truck in them. Here is Bauer and I laying on my bed reading a car/truck book. In fact, Bauer loves tractors so much that one night a couple of weeks ago, Andrew and I went on a double date with some friends of ours. After being gone for about 45 minutes, the babysitter called and said that Bauer had been crying almost the whole time and he wouldn't calm down. I told them to get his blanket and find one of our many tractor books and try to read him a book and to call me back if he didn't calm down. We called 15 minutes later just to make sure that everything was OK and he was just fine. He calmed down really quickly with the books.

We went to the mall one evening just to walk around and let the kids play. The line for Santa was really, really short so we let the kids sit on Santa's lap and talk to him. Of course, Bauer wasn't a fan. This year Keagan and Deker are asking for tractors, tools and a workbench.

We made snowman ornaments of the boy's handprints. I found this idea here. True to their favorite colors, Keagan choose blue, Deker choose yellow and we choose green for Bauer. I am excited to see what Bauer's favorite color is going to be.

All three boys attempting to take off Daddy's work boots.

Last weekend, we bundled up and went to the Idaho Botanical Gardens for their Winter Garden Aglow. It is so pretty all light up.

I made Christmas ties for the boys. Here they are last Sunday all dressed and ready for Church. I might be a little biased, but I think I have three of the most handsome boys!

Here are the boys doing their "exercises". Keagan was showing us something and Deker and Bauer just had to join in.

In other news...We are so excited for Christmas to get here. We have been counting down with our countdowns. The first thing Keagan and Deker do every morning is check the countdowns. They are also are almost loving our Elf on the Shelf that came to us this year. The boys named him Zippy. The boys like seeing where he is every morning, but I am not sure that they totally believe it all. On the second morning, Keagan told me that he doesn't think he is real because "his eyes don't blink". On another morning, we was sitting holding a biscut. When I said that he must have been hungry, Keagan said "No, because he didn't take a bite". So, when we were all gone picking Keagan up from school the elf took a few bites and that satisfied Keagan for the day. Because of all that and a few other things Keagan has mentioned, we will see if Zippy comes back next year or not.

Lost Pictures

2011-12-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a month since I last blogged. I haven't even taken pictures of my camera since November 5. Today I sat down to get all pictures off the camera and maybe even blog about some of the happenings of our household the past month. When I went to take the pictures off, I realized that one of my boys (I think Bauer) got ahold of the camera and DELETED all the pictures!

So, now you don't get to see pictures of when Andrew's parents and his sister and family came and visited for a weekend. Or when we went to the Discovery Center as a family. Or of the fun Thanksgiving we had. Or when Deker, Bauer and I got to go take a little tour of Great Harvest for Deker's preschool group. Or a picture of Bauer and I laying on my bed reading books.

Oh well. At least there wasn't a HUGE event that we had happen and now don't have pictures of it. I can just hope that I get better at taking pictures off the camera and have learned that kids and camera's do NOT go well together.

Halloween

2011-11-03T14:44:00.001-06:00

My parents came up to visit from Nevada for the weekend. They arrived on Friday afternoon and left on Sunday after church. We had so much fun with them and were so glad that they came. On Saturday morning, we went down to the Nature Center. I forgot my camera, but my parents took a couple of pictures from their cell phone.

Here are the boys playing in the stream simulator inside. They thought this was so much fun and didn't want to leave it.

Bauer looking cute.

My little owls.

Whenever we have anybody at our house, one of the first things that my boys do is ask them to read books to them. Here is a picture I got of my Dad reading a book to Bauer. Any guess on what the book is about? Tractors!

That night our ward had a harvest dinner and trunk or treat. There was a dinner of chili, chips and cupcakes. Afterward, there was a bounce house, scary tent and games for the kids to play, followed by the Trunk or Treat. I was so excited to finally see the boys in their finished costumes. They were the Three Musketeers. I thought they were quite adorable and we got a lot of great comments on them throughout the weekend.

Keagan and Grandma (my Mom) Sword fighting.

Keagan "getting" Andrew.

Andrew using Bauer's sword to "get" Deker.

On Monday, Keagan's kindergarten class wore their costumes to school and then towards the end of their school day, there was a costume parade. I dressed up Deker and Bauer and went to the parade. Here is Keagan's class.

That night, we went trick or treating around our neighborhood, then gladly came home when it got dark to watch some Halloween cartoons and pass out candy to the kids that came by.

Carving Pumpkins

2011-11-03T14:25:00.000-06:00

On the Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins. I helped Keagan and Deker carve an actual face, then they had fun putting more holes, lines, etc. into their pumpkins.

Bauer had fun playing around with Andrew's for a while.

Andrew, Deker and Keagan hard at work.

The finished products.

October Happenings

2011-11-03T14:19:00.001-06:00

In October, one of the boys in Deker's preschool co-op group turned three. Because his birthday is in October, they decided to do a Halloween party and all the kids were asked to dress up. Unfortunately, I had not made the boy's Halloween costumes yet. On the day of the party, Deker decided that he wanted me to stay with him at the party and since Andrew was working, that meant we would all need to stay. As I was going through our Halloween costume box the morning of the party and trying to find costumes for the boys, I had a light bulb moment. Why don't I put them in their Boise State shirts, make some Boise State tattoos with my Silhouette and then paint their faces. Here is how they turned out.

They had fun and have been asking several times since to put the tattoos on again. That afternoon when I was putting all the boys in their rooms for nap/quiet time Keagan said "Mom, I thought Heavenly Father didn't want us to have tattoo's on". I then got to explain that these tattoos wash off and that is OK, he just doesn't like it when we permanently do things to our bodies.

After we got home from the party, we had a first in our family. Our boys have never fallen asleep in their chairs/at the table...That is until now. When we got home from the party, I fed the boys lunch. Bauer often takes a long time to eat a meal and I will leave in him in his high chair to finish eating while I clean up. This particular time, Andrew had called while I was cleaning up from lunch and I had kind of forgotten that Bauer was in his high chair (I know, bad mom!). After a couple of minutes, I looked around and noticed Bauer in his high chair, asleep.

Last Friday, Keagan received an award at a school assembly. Once a quarter the school has an assembly to give awards to kids for academics and also Citizenship. Keagan received a citizenship award from his teacher for consistently being respectful. I am so proud of Keagan, he loves going to school each day to learn and to play and make friends.

The Farmstead, Part 2

2011-11-03T14:03:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, we purchased season tickets to the Farmstead when they were on Groupon. We had so much fun going several times throughout the month of October. Here are more pictures from our various trips.

The boys in the BIG rocking chair.

In the corn maze

The big jumping pillow.

Pumpkin Painting

2011-10-22T10:36:00.000-06:00

Earlier this week Deker, Bauer and I went to The Farmstead (corn maze, pumpkin patch, etc) for Deker's preschool group. While there, each child can pick out a small pumpkin. I decided the perfect thing to do with those small pumpkins was to paint them. I decided that would be a great activity to fill our Friday evening while Andrew was away working. The boys had a ton of fun and thought it was pretty cool. Even Bauer got into it and had fun until he started trying to put the paint in his mouth.

Bauer

Deker

Keagan

The finished products (From Left Deker's, Bauers, Mine, Keagan's).

Two cute pictures

2011-10-10T20:35:00.000-06:00

Bauer gets so excited sometimes and pulls out this super adorable face that I can't help but smile and laugh out loud when I see it. I am glad that I have been able to capture it a few times.

Yesterday (Sunday) the boys were dressed and ready for church and we had a few minutes before we needed to leave, so I took the opportunity to take a picture of them in their Sunday best.

Fixing the car and the bike?

2011-10-10T20:26:00.000-06:00

One Friday just over a week ago, Deker, Bauer and I were driving our van to the grocery store (Keagan was at school). Just as I was about to pull into the parking lot the van starting making a really strange sound. Then as I was pulling into a parking stall it starting smelling really bad. I called Andrew in a panic, who was in Seattle driving a Semi. After telling him what was going on, he told me not to drive it. Thank goodness we have lots of friends that were willing to help. One friend came and drove me and my boys home. Another friend of ours took their Friday night, came to my house to get the van keys, drove to van, figured out what was wrong with it and then towed it home for us. Andrew actually pulled into town about the time that they got to the van, so we was able to meet them at the store to help tow it back.

On Sunday afternoon, this same friend came over and helped Andrew replace the water pump. While they were outside working on the van, Keagan and Deker decided that their Trike and toy car needed fixing as well. They talked Andrew into letting them use a couple of tools then proceeded to do some intensive "fixing".

Deker fixing the Trike also known as the Semi.

Keagan fixing the car.

The Farmstead

2011-10-10T20:12:00.000-06:00

The Farmstead is a local corn maze/pumpkin patch with other activities for the kids to do. They have the corn maze, jumping pillow, corn box (picture a giant sandbox, but with corn not sand) hay palace/maze, cow train, hay ride, etc. When I saw season passes on Groupon, we decided to buy them. Here are two picturs we took the first time we went two weeks ago. I am sure there will be more pictures coming soon.

The Cow Train. Bauer wasn't sure of it at first, but ended up really liking it.

The corn box. My little boys dreams come true because of all the tractors there were to play with.

We are excited to go back at least a couple more times.

The Zoo

2011-10-10T19:54:00.000-06:00

Every time we went to the zoo this summer, the kids would tell Andrew all about it and tell them they wanted to take him and show him things so finally one Saturday a few weeks ago, we finally all went as a family. Here are some pictures of our latest Zoo outing.

The just LOVE the look on Bauer's face in this shell picture.

Deker's 1st day of Preschool

2011-09-15T17:35:00.000-06:00

Actually, if I am being completely honest, this was his 2nd day of preschool.

I started a Preschool Co-op (Joy school) with Deker. There are 7 kids in the co-op and each mom takes a turn teaching. We meet once a week and Deker seems to really like it so far. The first week was last week (Sept. 6). I was the first one to teach and in the process of getting everything ready, I forgot to take a picture of him. So, I made sure to do it this week before heading out the door. Unfortunately, the battery on the camera was dying, so this is all I got.

Bauer was wanting to get in the picture as well, so I was able to get one of both of them.

Hair Raising?

2011-09-15T17:29:00.001-06:00

My three boys were in desperate need of a hair cut. But for some reason, it took forever to finally get around to cutting their hair. One evening, we decided to comb out Deker and Keagan's curly hair. This is the afro's they ended up with.

Thank goodness I finally cut their hair yesterday. It made such a difference that even the neighbor kids noticed. Also, Bauer got his first haircut as well because it was getting pretty scraggly in certain spots.

This morning, we went to DI to donate some things. We decided to wander into the store for a little bit. Bauer was in the shopping cart and got really excited sitting by a bunch of stuffed animals. I got him out to see what it was he was looking at. He grabbed this Winnie the Pooh bear off the shelf and wouldn't let it go. After seeing how much he loved it, we couldn't resist buying it for him, good thing it was only $1.50. I was able to get a picture of him with it this evening. How could anyone resist such a face.

Hot Air Balloons

2011-09-05T17:59:00.000-06:00

This past weekend was the Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic. On Saturday, I braved the early morning, cold and crowd and took the boys. We met up with our friends the Coburn's which was very fun.
The night before, I made breakfast burritos so that we could have a picnic breakfast while waiting for the balloons to start inflating and launching.

The boys were so cold.

While we were walking around after breakfast we saw this Ball and Keagan wanted a pictures. It is actually for the Idaho Lottery, but we won't tell Keagan what that is.

Me and my boys. Deker was so cold and not very happy, but once the sun came up, he perked right up and started having lots of fun. He was still pretty cold on this picture which is why the grumpy face.

At one point I noticed that Bauer had a stick. I looked around and didn't see any other. Leave it up to my kids to find the only stick in the entire area. Our friends, took much better pictures. If you want to see more of the balloons, you can find their blog here.

There is a stream running through the park and when we got to the van to leave, the boys wanted to see the ducks.

Little Bauer.

Deker is saying "Come to me Ducks, Come to me Ducks."

Keagan's 1st day of Kindergarten

2011-08-22T19:42:00.000-06:00

Today was Keagan's first day of School. It is crazy that he is old enough to be in school. Keagan has been so excited about starting school and he did Amazing. We took him to school to help him find his classroom and meet his teacher. He went right in, put up his backpack, found his seat and promptly told us "bye". When we picked him up after, he was all smiles and said that he really loved it. He is looking forward to riding the bus to school tomorrow.

While he was at school, Deker and I made him a giant Chocolate Chip Cookie. He was pretty excited and enjoyed sharing with with everybody after lunch.

Decorating

2011-08-20T21:03:00.000-06:00

Last week, Andrew's parents came and took all three boys with them to Idaho Falls for the week. I decided that the perfect thing for me to do is finally decorate the living room and kitchen which included making curtains and pillows. I absolutely love how it turned out.

Our Crazy August

2011-08-20T19:00:00.001-06:00

The last couple of weeks have been very busy, but very fun weeks. It all started out on Thursday, August 4, with my cousin Amanda stopping by here and staying with us for a few days on her way to Southern Utah to go back to College. While she was here, we went to the Discovery Center. As always, the highlight is the Shopping Center. This was the first time that Bauer actually really played in it and he LOVED it.

One night, we were upstairs playing and Deker decided that he needed to put a "few" tools into his tool belt. When I saw what he had done, here is what he looked like. I am didn't know he could put that many tools in that little tool belt.

After Andrew got home and after Amanda left on Saturday morning, we drove up to Baker City, Oregon to visit with our good friends, Dan & Angela Kolilis. We had so much fun that I didn't get the camera out very much. On Saturday afternoon we went Huckleberry picking, those were so delicious. After that we went back to see the house they are remodeling and their beautiful property. We then went over to Angela's parents house and had dinner.

On Sunday, after church and lunch, the boys got to go on Tractor rides. Angela's parents own a ranch and they have a few different tractors. Here is Keagan and Deker riding on a backhoe with Dan and Angela.

Dan, Keagan and Deker on the backhoe.

These next two pictures are of Deker on a tractor with Angela's brother, Drew.

Deker driving the tractor.

Keagan's turn to drive the tractor with Drew.

Angela's parents had this really cool horse swing made out of tires in their orchard which the boys loved.

How many people can you get on a 4-wheeler? Dan, Angela, Lucas, Keagan and Deker. We had so much fun and can't wait to go back. Thank you, Dan & Angela and Angela's family for the wonderful time!

On Monday morning, we had to hurry and get all three boys unpacked, clothes washed and packed again because Andrew's mom was driving over to take them to Idaho Falls for the week. Here are the boys anxiously waiting her arrival. From the sound of it, they had a lot of fun. While all three boys were gone, I did lots of sewing which I will do another post on later. Thank you Mark & Kathy!

On Friday, I met them all in Twin Falls and brought the boys back home. On Saturday, we spent the day at Eagle Island State Park for Andrew's company picnic/party. That evening, we got the van loaded up with all our camping supplies so that after church on Sunday we could go up camping.

We headed up to Grandjean, Idaho which has natural hot water spring. As we were heading out, we had to return a redbox. We pulled into two places that we thought should have a redbox, but they didn't. We finally found success at the third. Then after all three boys were asleep, we realized that we didn't have cash or a checkbook to pay for the campsite, so we had to pull into a gas station along the way to get cash.

A little later Keagan woke up and about 15 minutes later told us he needed to throw-up. Andrew pulls over gets him out of the van (which wakes up the other 2 boys). He didn't throw-up, so we get back in the van. Fifteen minutes later, Keagan says "I need to throw up" but proceeds to do just that before we can stop. We get him out and cleaned up. Then 15 minutes later, Deker has to pee. Then 15 minutes later, Bauer messes his Diaper. But, we finally made it to our campsite.

We had a wonderful time, complete with lots of digging by the three boys. We took trips each day to the hotsprings. On Tuesday, we headed home. There are no pictures of all this, because we forgot the camera at home.

Our trip home was just at adventurous which started with the van not starting when we tried to leave our campsite Tuesday morning. Then we had more adventures with a false alarm from Deker throwing up (We were smarter this time and had both boys go to the bathroom while we were stopped) and then Deker throwing up all over himself. (Any advise on how to deal with kids who get carsick would be greatly appreciated!) We had told the boys that we were going to go fishing, but with all of the craziness, we just didn't have time, but we promised them we would go on Saturday.

On Friday, I took the boys to the zoo which is always a fun thing to do. This trip, Bauer was actually interested in seeing all the animals which was fun to watch.

Every morning since Tuesday, Keagan would ask what day was today and then would count down the days until we could go fishing. So this morning, after Andrew got home from work, we packed a picnic lunch and went fishing. We didn't catch anything, but it is fun to try.

And that concludes our crazy and fun adventures that has kept us super busy this week. Now I need to brace myself for my first child starting Kindergarten. Let's hope there aren't too many tears shed by me that day.

Misc. Happenings

2011-07-28T11:00:00.000-06:00

Mowing the Lawn...This is a picture that I took last year of Andrew, Keagan and Deker Mowing the lawn.

This is what they look like this year. Bauer didn't want to be left out and so he had to join in the mowing train.

While I was on vacation, Andrew got a lot of projects done. This is one of them. Four or five years ago we saw a trash can holder and I fell in love with it. Well, Andrew finally was able to get it done. I LOVE how it turned out.

I saw this idea here. So one night I grabbed some small toys and froze them in water. The boys had so much fun. I can't wait to do it again.

Keagan learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. He absolutely loves it. Thanks to my sister, Vera, giving me a bike, we can now go riding on the greenbelt as soon as we get a bike trailer.

Vacation Part 2 (Petersen Family Reunion)

2011-07-15T21:10:00.000-06:00

Andrew was able to join us for the second part of our vacation. On Sunday evening, he flew down to Salt lake where my sister Jeanette and her family picked him up. He stayed with them that night and then drove down to Cedar City with them Monday morning (Thanks Jeanette & Jeff).

We met up in Cedar City where we had lunch then headed up the mountain to our reunion spot. It was a very nice place. It was fun seeing my aunts, uncles and cousins that I haven't seen in several years. Here is a picture that was taken on Wednesday morning of all that was there. Just think, this is only about half of the descendants of my Grandma & Grandpa Petersen.

Here is me and my family (minus my brother Cory and his family that had to leave early and my brother Neal who is on a mission in Brazil).

On Tuesday Morning, we sent to Mammoth Cave. Andrew took Keagan and Deker in and I stayed out with Bauer who ended up falling asleep in the carrier.

On Wednesday morning, we hiked to Cascade Falls. It was a nice easy 1 mile hike and it was beautiful. Here is my family at the start of the hike.

At the falls.

On the way down, I had Bauer in the front which was fine, but on the way back, it was harder because we were going uphill. I switched Bauer to the back and he loved it even more.

Keagan and a couple of his cousins.

There was a sand volleyball court set up. The kids LOVED playing in the sand. Deker, of course, had his tractors out and loved using them to dig.

Keagan, Deker and a couple of cousins made a sand cake. Here they are carrying it to someone.

They decided to give it to my sister (their aunt) Marie. What was even funnier is that after giving it to her, one of the girls decided that she wanted it back.

My brother-in-law Joe brought up a friends 4-wheeler and my parents brought up their rhino, so there were a lot of rhino and 4-wheeler rides.

Here are some pictures I can't help but put on here. First up, Bauer and my Dad.

Bauer and his cousin Tyler. This just makes me laugh every time I see it.

Bauer being "chased" by his Aunt Vera.

The girls even snuck in some time to make some hair flowers. I am so excited to now know how to make them. Too bad I was having too much fun and didn't take any pictures.

Vacation - Part 1

2011-07-15T15:57:00.001-06:00

I grew up in a really small town in Nevada called Caliente. One of my favorite holiday celebrations was the 4th of July. I really wanted to take my kids to Caliente to experience the fun it is. We also had a family reunion for my mom's side of the family in Southern Utah a week later, so I decided why not take my kids down for the 4th of July, spend the week at my parents house and then go to the reunion from there. Andrew had to work the first week, so I made the 8 hour trek with my 3 boys and then Andrew met up with us the following week for the reunion. Here are some highlights of our trip.

4th of July
We arrived at my parents house on Friday evening. On Sunday evening, my sister Marie and her family came over. That night, Keagan and 4 of his cousins slept in my parents tent trailer. On Monday morning, the start of the festivities (all put on by the Volunteer Fire Department) began at 6:00 with dynamite blasts being set off.

Next up was the very yummy breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage and ham at the park cooked by the firemen.

Then the parade. The kids all got LOTS of candy. Here are my three boys in their patriotic shirts waiting for the parade to begin

My family that was in town.

After the parade, we headed over to the park for the "races". 0-3 year old kids did just running. For the rest, it was running, potato sack race, three legged race & wheelbarrow race. Every person participating received a dollar coin. Then after each race, the fireman would hand out quarters to every person that did each race.

Here is my brother and I doing the three legged race and yes, we were faster my sister Marie and her husband.

After the races, we all enjoyed some yummy watermelon. After which was the money scramble where they would throw money on the ground while spraying you with water out of the fire hoses.

That night, we went back to the park for the fireworks. Keagan and Deker were so excited to stay up late. Once the fireworks started though, Deker did not like the loud noises, cuddled up to me and fell asleep.

Working in the Yard with Grandpa
As I mentioned above, we got to my parents on Friday evening when we got there, my dad was putting up forms to pour a cement walkway around the house the next weekend. On Saturday, my dad spent most of the day outside working on it and then a few evenings the rest of the week putting the finishing touches. My boys spent a lot of time out there "helping". By helping that usually means talking non-stop. At my point, my dad came in and said "I don't know what's more tired my muscles or my ears."

Who said anything about child labor laws?

Bauer has to get in on the action.

The next Saturday (after the 4th of July) Marie and her husband came back to Caliente to help my dad pour the cement. There was a lot of cement bags on the ground so my mom brought the truck around and we had the younger kids throw all the empty bags into the back of the truck. They were so excited to be able to do something. They even got up in the truck to get all the bags smashed down.

Cedar City
On Wednesday, my Mom was going down to Las Vegas to pick up my grandparents from the airport (they were flying in for the reunion the following Monday). I decided to take my kids over to Cedar City for two days to visit with my Sister Marie and her family and also to give my grandparents a couple of days to get settled in and rest.

I had a great time visiting with my sister and the boys and a lot of fun playing with their cousins. We took the kids to a park with a stream to play. We went to a Green Show (free pre-show) for the Shakespeare Festival and my sister and I had a couple of quiet shopping excursions without kids.

Misc. Pictures
It was fun to spend some more time at my parents house and it was great to have my grandparents there as well. I was so glad that my kids were able to spend a some time with their great grandparents.

Keagan and Deker loves to play with this marble thing that my mom has.

Bauer was always trying to steal his great grandma's cane. For some reason he really loved to play with it.

Keagan loved climbing in the tree with his cousins Hafen and Hudson.

My sister Vera arrived at my parents house on Saturday afternoon. We went to a local burger place for dinner that night for some yummy Pickadilly chips and shakes. Keagan and Deker insisted on sitting by Aunt Vera.

My three boys with theire Great Grandma and Great Grandpa.

My Grandma and Grandpa Peterson have 12 kids, 80-ish grandkids and 60-something great grandkids (so far) and Keagan and Bauer are the only two that are born on Grandpa Peterson's birthday so we had to get a picture of them with their great Grandpa.

Deker Turns 3

2011-06-27T11:12:00.000-06:00

Yesterday (Sunday) was Deker's 3rd birthday. He has been looking forward to this day since we celebrated Keagan and Bauer's Birthday. Deker LOVES tractors and LOVES the color yellow. Whenever he was asked what he wants for his birthday his answer was always a tractor. If I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, he would say he wants to go to Marshall's work and see the tractors, which we did less than a month ago. When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he would say a yellow cake.
For breakfast, I made him a "3" pancake. Then I decided to try to get a little more creative and make a track hoe one as well. Here is how they turned out.

Deker really liked it.

For his birthday, Andrew and I got him a bike. He loves it, but hasn't gotten the hang of it yet.

Dan & Angela gave Deker this really fun gift it is a butterfly net (just like Keagan has) a canteen, whistle and compass. He had them clipped to his pajamas all morning (you can see the compass next to his plate and all of it on him in the picture above.) Then he wanted them all back on after church.

We made a yellow cake and decorated it with chocolate frosting and crushed up oreos to look like dirt. Then I put three new little tractors and a dump truck on top. Very easy, but he loved it.

After he blew out the candles, I asked him if he wanted to eat his cake from his dump truck. As you can see, it was much easier to lift up the dump truck and take bites rather than using a spoon.

Deker you are such a great little boy. You love to sing songs, dig in the dirt and play with your brothers. You (and Keagan) are teaching me more about tractors, cranes, trucks, etc., the I ever thought I wanted to know, but that is just fine. We love you!

Backyard Water Fun

2011-06-26T16:41:00.000-06:00

We finally got some really warm weather this week. Wednesday was a particullary warm day. After naps, Andrew and I decided to get out some of our water toys and set them up. We had such a fun afternoon & evening. We even decided to scrap our dinner plans and grill hamburgers and hot dogs so that we could continue to enjoy our evening.

Weekend with the Haleys

2011-06-26T16:33:00.000-06:00

I am a week late on posting this, but my motto is better late than never. Last weekend (over Father's Day) my sister, Marie her husband and 5 kids came and stayed with us for a couple of days on their vacation. We were so very excited to have them come stay with us.

They arrived Friday night and we went down to the Meridian Dairy Days parade. We had a great time which was made even better by the chocolate milk, string cheese, t-shirts & lots of candy we received.

Friday morning, we headed over to Wahooz to do the go carts and bumper boats. Deker and Bauer are not tall enough so I volunteered to stay out with them. Braelynn didn't want to go on the go-carts so she stayed out with us as well. While the rest of them were waiting in line, we ventured around for a few minutes and then I got out the camera and had fun taking a few pictures. I love how good Braelynn is at posing.

Joe & Samantha

Veronica

Keagan and his cousin Tyler

Marie & Brenna

Next up was the bumper boats. I stayed out with Bauer & Deker while the rest went. Thank you to Tyler for taking Keagan on the bumper boats and go carts with him.

Keagan and Tyler.

They all ended up fairly wet but with lots of smiles. After that the older kids did Laser Tag. We were going to go to a park and play afterwards but it started sprinkling/raining so we headed back home afterward.

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day. Here is the shirt I spruced up using my Silhouette to cut out Freezer paper and using fabric paint.

Here is the apron I spruced up using my Silhouette. The story behind this is that Keagan and Deker think that I can't use the grill. It is Daddy's grill and only he can use it. It sure is fun to tease them about it though.

For dinner we made very yummy grilled pizzas. We let each of the kids make their on individual pizzas.

Then we had Smore's for dinner.

We had such a great time visiting with the Haley's and we are so happy that they stayed with us.

A little of this...A Little of That

2011-06-14T21:10:00.001-06:00

Are you ready for Randomness?
A few months ago, Andrew and I decided it was time to move the car seats around for each boy. I was feeling bad that Deker and now Bauer gets mostly hand-me-downs. I know that they don't care, but I wanted to do something to make myself feel better about it, so I decided to recover the car seats. Keagan, of course, got a new car seat so I didn't do anything to his.

Here is the car seat Keagan had. We got some material that has yellow on it because as Deker will tell you Yellow is his favorite color. One evening, Andrew and I picked it apart at all the seams. Then another day we cut out new pieces and sewed it all together with the original cover & padding.

Here is the after. Deker LOVES it and has been so proud to sit in it.

After doing the car seat above and realizing that it wasn't that bad, I decided I could take on this one that might be a little more challenging. This is the car seat that both Keagan and Deker used which would soon become Bauer's.

Here is the after. I really LOVE how it turned out. When we were at Joanne's picking out the fabric, this polka-dot caught my attention and I was hooked. This one seemed to come together just as fast as the other one even though it was a little more complicated because of things we learned from doing the first one. It makes me happy everytime I put him in it.

Sunday morning after we got all the boys dressed and ready for church, I just couldn't resist taking a picture of them before we headed out the door. I know I might be a little biased, but I think I have three very handsome boys.

Yesterday (Monday) morning while I was cooking breakfast I looked over to see Keagan kicked back on the computer chair, holding a cup of water. I couldn't resist taking a picture. He looked kind of mad or something in the picture, but he wasn't he was just relaxing.

I left the Sunday paper unattended and Bauer noticed and proceeded to scatter. It was a good thing I had already taken the coupons out.

Now I wish I had an individual picture of Deker. I will have to try to get him caught in the action of all his craziness soon.

Bauer and his Giraffe

2011-06-05T20:43:00.000-06:00

My sister, Vera, sent Bauer a giraffe stuffed animal when he was born (she does it for all her neices and nephews). It has been in Bauer's crib ever since he got it. Recently, he started playing with it when he goes down for a nap and at night. He is always quite and still goes to sleep. The only reason we know he does this is because when we check on him, it is in a different spot.

This morning, Bauer was taking his morning nap and this is what I saw when I went in to wake him up to go to church.

I had seen him like this one night last week, but I didn't take a picture because I didn't want to wake him up, so when I saw him like this today, I quickly got the camera to capture the precious moment.

The Zoo

2011-06-05T20:36:00.001-06:00

Angela called us up on Saturday morning and said that they were meeting up with Lucas' paternal birth grandma at the zoo to see the Butterfly exhibit. I took my boys early to spend some more time at the zoo, we then met up with them, had our picnic lunch and proceeded to the butterfly exhibit. Here are some of the pictures of our adventures.

Of course, the trusty jeep cannot ever be forgotten. My boys will make sure of that.

Soon after we got to the zoo, Keagan and Deker each choose a stick and carried it around for most of the morning.

I think this is where the sticks got put down and forgotten.

The giraffe slide. Always a favorite.

The butterfly exhibit was amazing. There were lots of different kinds and colors. Definitely worth seeing. They have had it for the past few years, but I never knew about it. I think I am going to make it an annual thing to see.

We all had butterfly's land on us, but I only was able to get a picture of one on Keagan.

Thank you, Angela, for inviting us to go with you and opening our eyes to the wonders of the Butterfly exhibit!

Party Time!

2011-06-05T20:11:00.000-06:00

Our really good friends, Dan & Angela, have been wanting to have children for a long time. After about three years of trying to adopt, they finally got the news they have been hoping to hear (on Keagan & Bauer's birthday) that there was a 2 month old baby boy for them to pick up the following day. This wonderful news and the adorable baby has brought so much joy to them, their family and all their friends. To celebrate this occasion, our friend Elizabeth and I threw them a shower. Because they have been through so much together trying to have a baby and adopt, we decided a great way to celebrate is by having a couples/family open house.

The happy family.

Keagan and Deker watching over Baby Lucas. They already love him and talk about him a lot.

The cupcake display for the party.

The food...We made Slow Cooker Chicken Nachos which were a huge hit. We also had a few people bring salads and fruit.

Mommy Angela and Baby Lucas!

The personalized blanket I made for them.

Deker playing with Angela's grandma's walker. There was a few different times when I saw Deker over there talking with her or playing with her walker. He seemed very taken with Grandma.

There was an empty box which looked like something Bauer would have fun in and he sure did.

It was such a fun night celebrating with friends such a happy occasion! Lucas, you are such a special boy and I am excited to see the wonderful young man that I am sure you will grow to be.

Fishing

2011-06-05T19:31:00.000-06:00

On Monday, Memorial Day, we decided to forget about all the things we need to do and go fishing and have a cookout. Here are some pictures of our outing.

Deker sitting in the tall grass playing with a little box waiting for his fishing pole to be ready.

Bauer keeping himself occupied.

The pole is finally ready.

Keagan happily fishing.

My fisherman!

The first and only fish that was caught, on my pole!

As soon as I caught this fish, Deker kept saying "My turn to catch a fish!" If only it was that easy.

Cloud Nine

2011-05-30T15:45:00.002-06:00

or
Seventh Heaven
or
Ecstatsy
or
Every boys dream come true

This is some phrases that Keagan and Deker might use describe an outing we did on Sunday evening.

Andrew's really good friend, Marshall, recently started a job where he works on tractors (or as Andrew says, he works at Western States CAT as a heavy equipment Mechanic). Since Marshall knows how much my boys LOVE tractors, he took us all to his work yesterday afternoon to see the tractors. Keagan and Deker were in heaven seeing, climbing on and even sitting in a few tractors. There was even one smaller tractor that Marshall started and helped Keagan lift up the blade of the tractor.

After seeing the tractors outside, he took us inside to see a couple that were being worked on and also showed them his tool box which Deker thought was really awesome. Enjoy the pictures!

This is one HUGE blade (or in Andrew's words it is a D-10's blade).

Of course, Deker finds a big bolt.

By the time we left, Keagan could get on and off this thing all by himself.

Each boy taking a turn on the skidster.

What an amazing time was had by all the boys. Deker had so much fun that before we even left, he told me he wanted to come back again. Thanks Marshall for making my kids week!

All Boys

2011-05-30T15:43:00.000-06:00

You know you are a mom of boys when:

-At breakfast you hear "my spoon is the tractor's scoop scooping up the cereal" and makes tractor noise while eating cereal and holding the spoon by only two fingers.
-At lunch you have to say, "your sandwich is not a car/train/tractor, etc., it is just to eat".
-You hear "my fork is a Jackhammer, jacking the noodles and putting them into the dump truck (their mouth)".
-While waiting for Dad to get home to go somewhere and you tell your child they can't dig in the dirt because we have to go somewhere and they have a complete meltdown.
-Your child's hand gets caught in the door while going outside and while you are trying to console them they start cry even harder, only to find out that they are just mad because you are stopping them from going outside to dig and the moment you realize that and let them go, said child immediately stops crying and runs outside to dig.
-While getting dressed you hear "My hand is the claw of the tractor" and makes tractor noises while very robotically picking up each item of clothing with claw-like hands and putting them on.
-You come home from the library one day and realize you have 15 tractor/truck/train books and make them each pick out 4 to keep and take the rest back.
-Your kids know exactly where in the library to find the tractor books and you tell them, they can each pick out 2 tractor books and that is it, but somehow when you start checking out, at least one child sneaks in an extra book.
-You decide to make the boys personalize T-shirts and let them pick out their own design to put on their shirt and this is what they pick out:

Keagan chooses an Army tank.

Deker a track hoe.

They choose a train for Bauer.

And just because...a Picture of my three boys swinging and enjoying one of rare beautiful days.

Houston, we have a problem...

2011-05-28T13:06:00.002-06:00

I guess I should have chosen a different pair of pants to put on Bauer this morning. Here is what has happened today. It actually happened twice (so far) which is why I actually have pictures.

Birthday Boys

2011-05-08T17:38:00.000-06:00

Thursday (May 5) was my oldest and youngest child's birthday. Keagan turned 5 and Bauer turned 1. I started the morning off by singing Happy Birthday to Keagan, then Keagan and Deker helped me sing Happy Birthday to Bauer, it was very cute to hear them. For breakfast, I made a "5" and a "1" pancake for the birthday boys.

Deker wanted his picture taken with his pancake (a regular circle one) too. Notice the bite already taken out of it, even though we had not prayed yet.

The boys and I packed a picnic lunch and headed to Andrew's work to have lunch with him. While I was getting the boys loaded into the van, Keagan said to me "Mom, I LOVE being 5." For dinner, we went to Red Robin.

On Saturday, we had their party. It was really hard trying to come up with a theme for the party that wouldn't be too old for Bauer, but not too young for Keagan. So, I finally settled on just a color scheme which ended up being blue (Keagan's favorite color), yellow and brown. I really love how it all turned out. Here are several pictures of the party.

Keagan's cake

Bauer's cakes. The big one was for everybody to eat and the small one was his own special "smash" cake.

All the cakes. To go with the color scheme of the party, I layed Chocolate cake, yellow cake and white cake tinted blue. I did not frost the edges so that everybody could see the colors. Which also made it so much easter and faster to decorate. Then of course, Keagan's cake had to have blue writing which he tells me everyday or that it is his favorite color.

The weather actually cooperated and we were able to have the dinner outside. The back porch decorated.

A close-up of the banner Andrew and I made using my Silhouette.

My Birthday boys. I used my Silhoutte to cut the numbers out and then also used the same material to cover party hats.

5 year old Keagan

1 year old Bauer

Blowing out the candles.

Bauer being very happy and silly after eating all the frosting and some cake.

When the boys got up from their naps on the day of the party and they saw the presents for Keagan and Bauer, Deker got really upset that there wasn't one for him. We had been explaining to him that he would get his own party for his birthday, but he never got it. I was really worried that he would have a meltdown during the party, but he didn't which made me extremely happy.

Keagan, we love you so much and are very grateful for the boy that you are. You are a good oldest brother. It has been fun this week to watch you excitedly tell everybody we saw (even complete strangers) that it was your 5 birthday and Bauer's 1 birthday. You can write your own name and count to twenty (and beyond if I tell you it is 30 not thirty-ten or 40 not forty-ten, etc.). You are very excited to ride a school bus and start Kindergarten.

Buaer, are such a joy and a great addition to our family of boys. It warms my heart to see how much you try to play with your older brothers. I love to see the pure love in your face when you watch your brothers. We love you so much and can't wait to see what you are going to learn to do next. You are crawling all over the place and walking along the furniture very quickly. You get so excited when you push the chairs around the kitchen, but you get even more excited when we take your walker outside and you push it up and down the driveway.

All in a Day

2011-04-26T13:28:00.000-06:00

It is so much fun to listen to my boys playing and using their imagination. One morning last week, the boys were dogs, tractors and then cats. It went like this.

While I was making breakfast, Deker asked if they could make a dog house, when I told him yes, they got very excited. After breakfast, I took them upstairs to get dressed. Deker decided that he needed to be a tractor to get dressed. He used his hands as claws on the tractor to take off him jammies, pick up and put his clothes on. After that, they decided they needed to make a kitty zoo in the spare room. I am very glad that they use their imaginations, but it is hard to keep up with it all. Here is their doghouse on one particular morning.

In other news, we recently got his walker thing and Bauer LOVES it. We took it outside on Saturday afternoon and he cruised up and down the driveway with a huge smile on his face the entire time. I would walk beside him and help him turn it when he got to the end.

I have been having fun with my Silhouette Machine. Here are some shirts I made for my boys on Sunday. The blue writing is Keagans', the mickey mouse is Deker's and the button one is Bauer's. They were really excited to wear them on Monday.

Easter

2011-04-26T13:14:00.000-06:00

Our Easter weekend was kicked off by me getting brave enough to take our three boys to an Easter Egg hunt by myself. It went really well and we had a great time.

That evening, after Andrew got home and we had dinner, we dyed eggs. It is so fun to see how excited these little kids (and adults?) get to color eggs.

The Easter Bunny made an appearance some time in the night and the boys were very excited with the plastic candy-filled eggs that were left around the house. They also very much enjoyed what was in their Easter baskets. Their baskets weren't as cute as I was hoping because I didn't get around to personalizing them with my new Silhouette Machine before Easter. There is always next year.

That evening, while we were eating dinner with our friends, Keagan reminded us that we didn't have an Easter Egg hunt in our back yard. So, after dinner, Andrew took our dyed eggs and hid them all over the backyard and Keagan and Deker really enjoyed finding them all.

I hope that your Easter was fun as well.

Trash to Treasure

2011-04-02T21:08:00.000-06:00

We have a box that sits beside the garbage can that we put all our recycling items in. Bauer has recently discovered this box and he LOVES to pull it over and pull all the papers out of it. It doesn't take him long to accomplish this. This particular day, I walked out of the room for just a mintue or two and found this when I walked back in:

I actually find this scene at least once a day and that is only because I usually move the box onto the counter after the first incident of the day. I guess the old saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure" would be very fitting here.

Spring Days

2011-04-02T19:54:00.000-06:00

The weather in Boise on Thurday and Friday was almost 70 degrees and was only going to last for two days, so the boys and I took advantage of it and boy did we have fun. Too bad Andrew had to work both days and wasn't able to enjoy it with us.

On Thursday, after Bauer woke up from his morning nap, we packed a picnic lunch and headed to the park in our subdivision. We had so much fun swinging, running around, sliding, and eating outside. Once the boys got up from their afternoon nap, we headed outside to ride bikes and play outside for the rest of the afternoon.

On Saturday, we went to the MK Nature Center and spent quite a while there. We then went to the park next door and had another picnic lunch. After naps, we enjoyed more time in our backyard.

I was kind of sad to see the wind and rain come back today, but it sure was nice having a couple of beautiful sunshining days to enjoy.

Crawling

2011-03-19T14:13:00.001-06:00

Keagan and Deker love to play that they are dogs/cats/lions, etc., basically any animal that crawls around. One day a few weeks ago, Keagan and Deker came down the stairs, Keagan was crawling and had a rope around him, Deker was holding the rope and saying "come downstairs doggy, do you want to upstairs now doggie".

Bauer started doing an army-style crawl where he would use his arms to pull him along. He could get on his hands a knees, but then would flop down to crawl. That is until today. He started crawling on his hands and knees. After lunch, Bauer was crawling around and Keagan noticed him and said "Is Bauer crawling like a dog crawls?" I told him he is. Next thing I know, I had all three boys crawling on the floor with Keagan and Deker barking. I hurried and got out the camera and was able to get some pictures of them.

Good Times!

How Many

2011-03-18T22:38:00.000-06:00

How many people does it take to put together a kitchen chair?

What you can't see in this picture is Bauer crying because he is sitting in his excercauser. Otherwise, he would have been right there with them putting anything he could reach into his mouth.

St. Patricks Day!

2011-03-18T22:33:00.000-06:00

"Those silly Leprechauns". This is what I heard Keagan say quite a few times yesterday and even a few times today when remembering what they did yesterday.

This is the first year that we have done anything for St. Patricks Day. First of all, sometime in the night, some Leprechauns visiting our house. They wrote on the mirror in the kids bathroom, turned the toilet water green, turned over some furniture and dyed the milk green. When Keagan and Deker got up they kept saying "Whaaat? Those silly Leprechauns". It was pretty funny.

We started off the day by having Rainbow waffles. We got the idea for them here on Random Thoughts of a Supermom. Andrew had the idea to add a piece of fried ham with scrambled eggs for the pot of gold.

Keagan and Deker excited about eating their rainbow waffles and their pot of gold.

Bauer excited to eat anything.

For dinner that night, we had the very delicious Chicken Ranch Wraps (recipe found on Smithalicious). To make it more green, I dyed the chicken, ranch, rice mixture green and we had green tortillas. Drank green milk and had green jello (we used lime jello and instead of mixing in the cold water, we mixed in cool whip).

It was a lot of fun to see how excited Keagan was about it all and in turn see Deker excited because he likes to be like his older brother. It sure does make it a lot more fun to celebrate these fun little holidays.

What a Weekend

2011-03-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

Who: My mom, all my sisters and sisters-in-law and my niece and Bauer
What: Girls Weekend 2011
When: March 3-6
Where: At the Wiscombe Funeral Home in Davis, California
Why: Because we love to have fun!

This past weekend, Bauer and I flew on an Airplane to Davis, California (just outside Sacramento). My sister, Vera, just purchased a funeral home in Davis, so we all partied it up in the house above it. On Thursday we all arrived in California and our fun times began. On Friday, we took the Amtrak to San Francisco. We walked around, shopped, took a couple of bus tours and ate.

All of us waiting at the Amtrak station in Davis.

Bauer and I on the Amtrak. He just woke up from a nap.

All of us on on the top of a double decker bus ready for our tour of San Francisco.

Saturday, we went to the Farmers Market and walked around Davis. That afternoon, we had a Baby Shower for my Sister-in-law, Melissa who is having her first girl. We spent the rest of the day talking, laughing and eating.

On Sunday morning, those who had a long drive back headed home. Vera took the two of us that were still there to a small town called Winters to have a yummy breakfast at a great cafe there. We then went back to her place and relaxed. I think we even slept a little. Then it was time to head to he airport and fly back home.

Bauer was an awesome baby and was very patient and easy going. I missed my family lots, but had a lot of fun with my sisters. I am so grateful to have such a great family. I am also grateful for our friends, Dan & Angela who took Keagan and Deker for two days and loved on them and showed them a great time.

Cloud Nine!

2011-02-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

This little machine is called a Silhouette. This amazing thing hooks up to your computer and it does just about everything. It cuts Vinyl, Paper, Fabric, T-shirt Transfer material, Tattoo paper, Rhinestones, etc. You can download designs for really cheap from the Silhouette store or you can create your own designs. If you want words, you just use any font on your computer and it cuts it out. I have been wanting this machine for over a year now. Lots of craft blogs have done giveways. I have entered them all and not won one....That is until today. Today, my name was chosen out of over 1300 entries from the Happy Money Saver. I am so very excited to recevie this little beauty and start crafting!

The other reason I am on cloud nine.....On Thursday this week (three short days) Bauer and I will fly to Sacramento, California for our annual girls weekend with my mom, my 3 sisters, 2 sisters-in-law and 1 neices. Watch out, California, here we come!

P.S. A huge Thank You in advance to Dan and Angela who have willing agreed to take Keagan and Deker for two nights and two days so that I can go to girls weekend and while Andrew will be at work. You guys are the best!

Miscellaneous Pictures

2011-02-21T15:47:00.000-07:00

I was going through the pictures I have taken in the past couple of months to organize them and found some that I wanted to put on the blog.

At the beginning of January, Keagan and Deker helped me (with Bauer supervising from his bumbo) make cinnamon rolls and orange rolls. We froze most of them so Andrew could grab a couple for breakfast when he is heading out the door to go to work at 3:00 in the morning.

Pizza Night. Keagan LOVES to put the toppings on his himself. He told us that he was a great "Pizza Artist". Looking at this picture makes me want to make pizza for dinner. By the way, the small pizza with just cheese is Deker's, he is a simple man.

For Christmas this year, we made these drawing boards (inspiration found here on Infarrantly Creative) for my brother and his family and Andrew's brother and his family. We liked them so much, that we decided to make one for us as well. Keagan and Deker love drawing on it.

Our cute Bauer. I took this picture the middle of January while he was playing on the floor on the play blanket that I had made last year.

Big Picture of the blanket.

We were blessed to have my Mom & Dad come visit us for a weekend in the middle of January. We all thoroughly enjoyed having them with us for a few days. Keagan and Deker especially loved all the books they read to him and having two extra people to listen to all their stories. Keagan and Deker with Grandpa Smith.

Bauer with Grandpa Smith.

One morning while I was cleaning up after Breakfast, Keagan and Deker decided to sit down a read a book together. They sat in the Blue chair with a pillow behind them, a blanket and a pillow to rest the book one. They were being so nice to each other that I couldn't resist capturing this moment.

One Final Picture. Last week on Tuesday (Feb. 16) we had a record setting high temperature of around 63 degrees. The following day it was A LOT colder with snow and hail falling. Crazy weather.

McCall Winter Carnival 2011

2011-02-07T10:51:00.001-07:00

Andrew and I decided that we wanted to go the the McCall Winter Carnival this year. If you don't remember our fiasco of trying to go up last year, you can read about it here. We learned a lot from it and this time we went prepared. On Wednesday night, we packed a change of clothes for every boy (two for Deker in case he had an accident since we had just potty trained him the week before). We put everything in the van so that we would be ready to go first thing Thursday Morning.

I am happy to say, that this year, we actually made it! I think Deker is going to be cursed with motion sickness because he threw up close to the same time that he did last year. But since we actually went prepared, we (Andrew) was able to change his clothes, clean out the car seat and we continued on our way.

We had a lot of fun up there. After being outside for a little while, sledding and walking around, we headed back to the van to warm up and have lunch. Saw more sculptures and then headed home. It was a great spending the day together.

Here are quite a few pictures of our time there.

First up, Andrew taking Keagan and Deker sledding down the hill and almost onto the frozen lake.

From the top of the sledding hill. Looking out over the frozen/snow covered lake, then to the mountains. Beautiful.

There were quite a few snow sculptures of trains. My boys loved every one of them.

During the week, there is an ice sculpting contest. The day we were there, was the last day before they needed to be finished. Keagan and Deker were very entranced with watching this guy. He was very nice and talked to them about what he was doing.

This was was quite the display. There was a house, a mining car coming out of a mountain, an ice slide, snowmobile to sit on, lots of trees, etc.

This was Andrew's favorite...A double outhouse with a guy sitting down reading the paper with his pants around his ankles. The other side where people could sit.

Groundhog Day

2011-02-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

We attempted to celebrate Groundhog Day. I bought a book about Groundhog Day and gave it to the boys and then read it a few times. That night, Andrew shaped and then decorated our meatloaf into what should look like a groundhog.

After dinner, we made Groundhog cookies. The idea came from Gourmet Mom on the Go.

We had fun, but I don't think my boys really understood it all.

2011-01-28T21:53:00.009-07:00

These pictures were taken at about 5:00 pm today. Do you notice anything unusual?

All three boys are still in the PJ's they wore last night. Why do you ask? Because we are potty training Deker and I thought it would be easiest to pull PJ's up and down rather than jeans. Then around 11:30 when I noticed all three boys were still in PJ's, I decided why bother now. Keagan thought it was pretty cool wearing pajama's all day.

So, how is potty training going? Really well (knock on wood). Deker has not had one accident since yesterday at lunch. My happiest moment today was when Keagan and Deker were outside playing today (yes, in their pajamas, coat & shoes minus socks) and I was inside feeding Bauer and I suddenly hear Deker at the door "Potty Mommy". I opened the door, he sat on the potty chair, he went and then raced outside as soon as he washed his hands.

We attempted potty in October, but after 2 1/2 days, there was no progress so we gave up. Then last week, he started asking to wear underwear. So, Wednesday afternoon when Andrew got home from work,we put Deker in underwear. Then Thursday, all day we watched him and worked with him. I was really nervous about it today with Andrew gone for the next two days, but I can see now, that I had nothing to worry about.

I am thinking we will venture away from the house Saturday evening as soon as Andrew gets home from work. Please wish us luck that Deker continues to do well and that he will stick with it.

Whirlwind Week

2011-01-04T17:48:00.000-07:00

We had quite the busy, but fun week. On Sunday (the day after Christmas), we drove over to Idaho Falls to have a little Christmas celebration with Andrew's family. It was a very short trip because Andrew had to be back to work early Tuesday morning. The drive home was especially quiet because Keagan and Deker stayed in Idaho Falls with Andrew's parents.

On Thursday afternoon after Andrew got home from work Andrew, Bauer and I headed back to Idaho Falls. We picked up Andrew's brother and his wife (David & Leah) and began our long journey to Deming, New Mexico to attend the wedding of Andrew's good friend, Marshall. We arrived in New Mexico around 1:30 pm on Friday.

On Friday, the brides family had a yummy dinner of Mexican style food. After eating and talking, we went back to our hotel, put Bauer to sleep for the night and then we rang in the new year playing games in a hotel room with our friends that made it down the for the wedding.

On Saturday evening was the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and reception. Andrew was asked to be the Best Man. We enjoyed visiting and dancing the night away.

Here is the groom along with the three friends that have been friends for years.

The Beautiful new family.

Andrew, Bauer and I at the wedding.

We got up early Sunday morning, left Deming around 7:00 am and arrived in Idaho Falls about 1:00 in the morning. We crashed at David & Leah's house, then Andrew got up early to pick up the kids from his parents house because they had to go to work. We then loaded up and drove home.

It was a fun and exhausting week. I missed Keagan and Deker a lot, but I am very grateful that Andrew's parents took them for the week. It sounds like they had a great time with their grandparents.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

What a fun Christmas this has been. On Friday, I made Christmas Tree French Toast. Andrew didn't get to partake because he was at work.

Andrew got home that afternoon while the boys were taking their naps. We started a new tradition this year to get the boys an ornament that is special to them for the year. Keagan's ornament is a Curious George sitting on and reading books because is is always asking questions and he loves to read books. Deker got a Mickey Mouse riding in a train. Bauer got a first Christmas ornament. They opened these after they got up from their naps.

After that, we had dinner then drove around looking at Christmas lights. When we got home, they one more present which was their Christmas Jammies. Don't they look like they love each other?

This morning, the boys loved their things from Santa. Keagan got Cranky the Crane, Deker got Knapford Station, both of which are from Thomas and Friends and Bauer got cloth books. They also looked in their stockings. Keagan and Deker both got Semi's which they have been playing with all day long along with a few other little things.

After looking at the goodies from Santa, we had our annual Santa Pancakes which were as yummy as ever.

One of the last presents to open was a box of pillows from my Mom. Deker immediately took a pillow, took it the couch and this is what he looked like. I love the "Boy that was fun, but now I am spent" look on his face.

Here are each of the boys with the presents they received.

We finished our day having our own little Christmas Dinner this evening.

Out of the Mouth of....

2010-12-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

Keagan is a TALKER. Given the chance, this kid could talk for hours about his thing or that.

Well, one morning a few days ago, My boys and I were eating breakfast and Keagan said some pretty entertaining things that I want to document.

Keagan was eating Captain Crunch Berries for breakfast when he paused for a moment then pointed to one of the berries and this is the conversation that followed:

K- Mom, this is like a ball.

Me - Yes, it is.

K - Can you juggle it.

Me - No, you don't juggle your cereal, but some people can juggle other things.

K - Does Bella's (his cousin) Daddy, Alma (my brother), juggle things.

Me - Yes, I think he can.

K - Yea, I know that he is GREAT at juggling things.

A few minutes later, while still eating the same thing this is what ensued:

K - Mom, can we eat fish.

Me - Well, yes, you can eat fish that you buy at the store.

K - pauses for a moment then said "No, Mom, you don't get fish at the store, you go to a campsite that has water and you put your fishing pole in the water and when it does this (jerks with his arm) you reel it in like this (pretending he is reeling it in)."

At that point, I just had to nod my head, look away laugh to myself and then go call Andrew as soon as I could escape to tell him what Keagan had just said.

By the way...Here is a picture of Keagan on his last day of preschool last week. He was in a hurry to go in so I had a hard time getting a picture of him. The Child Development classes at the High School in our area does a 4 week preschool in the fall and spring. This is the first year that I had heard about it, so we enrolled Keagan. He really loved it and had a great time.

How does he do it?

2010-12-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Keagan started asking us how Santa was going to get into our house on Christmas Eve to deliver the presents and fill the stockings since we don't have a fireplace. We tried explaining to him many times that he has special magic powers and he can make a fireplace to appear, but he was never quite content with that answer.

On Monday, Keagan asked the question yet again (probably at least the 10th time) so I tried a different approach and he seems to be very content with this solution and he has not asked me about it again. Sometime, somewhere I remember hearing something about a magic key. So I explained this to Keagan and he really liked the idea of having a special magic key just for Santa. I was visiting with a neighbor of mine on Tuesday and she had the perfect key that she had laying around that we could have, so this is what I came up with.

Here is a close-up of the sign itself. I hung it on the door with the wreath we currently have on the front door.

Andrew cut a piece of pine board that he had out in the garage and burnt the edges a little to give it kind of a rustic feel. We then screwed in some hooks that we had and placed the key on it. I then asked a friend of mine to make me some vinyl lettering to put on it. I added some red and green ribbon to hang it from. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Now onto our next problem from my 4 year old. "How is Santa going to get the key since he lands on the roof". I suggested we send a letter to Santa, but Keagan didn't really care for that, he wants to leave a note on the roof. So, we have come to an understanding that after the boys are in bed, Andrew will go up to the room and leave a note telling Santa where the key it. I have been emphasizing the AFTER they are in bed part.

Merry Christmas Adam

2010-12-23T08:00:00.061-07:00

What is Christmas Adam? Well, Adam came before Eve. This is something that I got from my Mom, but it is a lot of fun to say and to see peoples reactions.

I have been wanting to do some posts about our Christmas happenings, but never got around to it. Since Christmas kind of snuck up on me this year, I have been busy making presents and trying to fit in some fun Christmas activities. Here is a run down of a few of our activities:

It took 3 days over the course of a week or more to get our tree up and decorated, but we got it done.

We made some of the ornaments for the tree. For the Candy Canes, I cut out two pieces of white material and put a piece of batting in between the sewed lines in it. For the Stars and Bells we cut the shapes our of white card stock, brushed them with corn syrup, put a few drops of food coloring on them and then swirled the colors around. A very fun activity for the kids and adults. We also made the Cinnamon angels and gingerbread men.

This was our first year going to the Winter Garden Aglow at the Idaho Botanical Gardens. It was amazing and I think this is something we will be doing every year.

We took the boys down to the mall to see Santa Claus. Keagan was really excited, Deker was a little nervous, but put on a pretty good front and Bauer didn't really care. Yea for a Santa picture where nobody was crying.

On Sunday, I came across this really yummy sounding recipe for Holiday Chex Mix. It sounded so good and I had everything on hand, so I made some. I may or may not have made at least one more batch since then. After dinner, we drove around to look at Christmas Lights and of course, we snacked on this yummy snack. I put the recipe on Smithalicious.

Tonight we made sugar cookies while watching BSU play and win the Maaco Bowl in Las Vegas. We got as far as baking them, tomorrow the boys and I will made frosting and decorate.

Merry Christmas Adam from my family to yours!

Why???

2010-12-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

Since Andrew drives truck, he has a crazy schedule. When he leaves (which is two times a week). He is gone for two days straight, home for a day or two and then gone again. For some reason, three times in the past month, my kids have gotten sick on the day that Andrew leaves, then by the time that he gets home, everyone is all better and he doesn't get to deal with any of it.

On two separate occasions (within two weeks of each other), Keagan began throwing up in the evening (the first day that Andrew is gone), some through the night and then is better the next day. Then last week, Deker began throwing up Friday evening and it continued into Saturday. I put him down for his nap in the afternoon and he woke up around the same time Andrew got home and was just fine.

Now here is the latest...

On Thursday I noticed that Deker's cheeks were looking a little red, I put on some lotion and didn't think anything of it. Last night, I noticed that his hands had a little rash looking thin on them, I thought it was dry skin, put on some lotion and didn't think anything of it. But then this morning, he woke up looking like this.

He still hand the rash on both hands and it is also on he back of his neck. His ears are bright red and he has big red patches all over his face, cheeks and chin. I started to get worried and so I called Andrew (who is at work of course), tried to explain and he suggested I call the doctor. Thank goodness our doctors office is open on Saturday. I made an appointment, loaded up all three boys in the van and got him to the doctor

Diagnosis: Fifths Disease.

What do you do? Because it is viral, nothing you just wait for it to go away. Thank goodness, is doesn't seem to bothering Deker at all, I just hope that it goes away quickly, because I looks horrible. But it is contagious so we need to hope and pray that none of the rest of us get it.

Why does this all happen when Andrew is gone? I do not think it is fair.

Haircuting Time

2010-12-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

When you comb your 4 year old "white" boys hair without putting water on it and it looks like an afro......

I think that means it is time for a hair cut. Awww...Much better!

The aftermath of cutting my 4 year old and a 2 year olds hair. They sure do have lots of hair.

On Saturday night we had a hair cutting party. I gave Keagan and Deker hair cuts while Andrew used the clippers on his own hair. After sweeping up the hair from Keagan and Deker, I looked at the pile and wondered how can so much hair come off of two boys. It is amazing.

Snow

2010-12-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

So, back on Nov. 20, we had our first snow fall. My boys were so excited. Deker kept running to the window and say "nos" (for some reason on the words that start with "s", he always says the s at the end). I took pictures of the snow falling so that I could put it on this blog, but I never got around to it, now it just seems silly.

The next big snowfall was the week of thanksgiving. Tuesday morning, there was a fair amount of snow, so I put Bauer down for his morning nap and then Keagan, Deker and I went outside to shovel our driveway. But since it was just me I forgot to take any pictures of that as well.

Now, last week was the most exciting snowfall yet. On Tuesday morning it started snowing, after a while, Keagan asked if we could go shovel the snow but I told him we needed to wait until it stopped. He asked that a few times that day, but it snowed all day and all night and some the next morning. By the time it stopped there was about 8 inches of snow. We waited until Daddy got home that afternoon, then we headed out to play in the snow.

When Keagan came out, the neighbors showed us their really cool snow fort and so Keagan convinced Andrew to make one as well. He are a the boys building the snow fort.

Bauer woke up after a while and so I wrapped him in a couple of blankets and took him out. While we were out there, our neighbors said they had a snowsuit from when their first boy was a baby and they are letting us borrow it for Bauer. Doesn't he look cute in it? Thanks Jen!

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day. We had a great day even though it went nothing like we had planned. Andrew was supposed to get home from work Wednesday morning and we were going to drive down to Caliente to spend a couple of days with my family. On Monday night, we packed up our clothes, food that didn't need to be in the fridge and other misc. stuff.

On Tuesday morning, it snowed here some and it snowed a lot where Andrew was headed. He got delayed and the roads weren't good, so Tuesday night we decided we better not go. I woke up on morning and thought, well if Andrew gets home early afternoon, maybe we can drive half-way and then the rest of the way on Thursday morning. I called Andrew around 10:00 and he told me that the breaks on his trailer froze overnight and he couldn't move his truck. So, with that and the bad roads, he didn't get home until around 6:30 that night.

When we realized we were going to be able to go, we decided that we would go out to eat for lunch and then have the dips that I was planning on making for dinner. Here are the highlights. A few weeks ago, we made these turkey shirts for the boys. Those on their handprints on their shirts.

We we are snuggling (or nugs and Deker says it) watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Here we are snuggling again after the boys got up from their nap.

The boys munching on Spinach Dip and Cheese ball while watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

We had a fun day, but missed my family terrible. Now I need to face the task of unpacking all our stuff.

2010-11-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, my sister, Vera, called around to her siblings and asked if she could make rubber band guns for the kids. The general consensus was, what about us? So, being the great sister that she is, she made rubber band guns for all of us (including the little babies). She also printed out some targets to use as well. When we were all together a couple of weekends ago celebrating my Mom's birthday, she passed out the rubber band guns, targets and a bag of rubber bands.

My boys (me too) have been having fun playing with them. Keagan and Deker probably ask at least once a day if they can play with them. I actually remembered to take a picture yesterday.

Vera, Thanks for being such a great sister and Aunt! We love you!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2010-11-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

My Mom turned 60 last week. We decided to help her celebrate by having a Surprise birthday party in Salt Lake. My dad rented a nice big 8 bedroom vacation house for us to all stay in. Most of us arrived in Salt Lake on Thursday evening. On Friday morning, my boys were very excited to learn that in the backyard, after the big lawn was none other than dirt hills. Keagan very excited came inside telling me all about them.

On Friday morning, the majority of us went to see the Hogle Zoo. There was a bucket truck in the zoo putting up Christmas light. This is what I saw when I looked at my boys. All the rest of us was going in the opposite direction of the truck.

I guess Bauer thought he needed a drink.

My sister Vera was being the great aunt that she is and bought tickets for all the kids to ride the Carousel. I went with Deker and Aunt Vera took Bauer.

Keagan with his other 4 year old cousins. Walking into the zoo.

Keagan in the lions mouth.

Aunt Vera with a lot of her nieces and nephews.

My Mom and Dad got to Salt Lake on Friday afternoon. My Mom thought she was just going to see two of her kids and their families that live there. It was decided ahead of time, that my Dad would call my brother Alma who lives in Salt Lake when they were getting close to Salt Lake. Alma then told him that they were headed to Artic Circle and to meet them there. We hid behind the play equipment. Then came out when she walked in.

There was lots of running around and playing games. Getting VERY dirty playing on the dirt hills, etc. We were very blessed to having amazingly good weather while we were there. Friday and Saturday were beautiful days then Sunday was cold and windy.

We had a great time surprising and celebrating my Moms birthday. On Sunday morning, we took a big group picture before attending sacrament meeting with my brother, Alma and his wife. Here is the big group picture. The only person missing was my brother Neal who is serving a mission in Brazil.

Gates

2010-11-01T16:09:00.000-06:00

Keagan and Deker likes to take the pillows from the couch and put them up with the coffee table and use the pillows as gates. These "forts", for lack of a better word are used for all sorts of things. Sometimes it is to make a house where they can "babysit" each others animals. Sometimes they are used in conjunction with blankets to make an even better fort. There are other things they do in them, but I can't remember at the time.

On Saturday night, Andrew and I were in the kitchen making dinner. After a little bit, Deker started saying "Momma, Gates". When I looked over this is what I saw....

Deker took all the pillows and put them up between the couch and the coffee table, took the helicopter in there and played for quite a while. When it was time for dinner, he took a gate, moved it out of the way, came out and then slid the gate back in place.

Happy Halloween

2010-11-01T15:53:00.000-06:00

And for the crowning events of our Halloween week. On Sunday night, we had "mice" for dinner. Basically mini meatloaf with things stuck in them to look like mice. I was really excited about showing these to Keagan and Deker, I put them on the plates, dressed them up like mice. Then when I put their plates in front of them and said "Look, there is a mouse on your plate". Their reaction was.... "Oh". That is when I realized that it will be a while before they care about stuff like that, but I will keep doing it because it was fun for me.

Because Andrew wasn't home for the Trunk or Treat, we decided to go out on Sunday evening. Our friends Jill and Kelson and their two girls came along. It was a very fun evening. Here are some better pictures Andrew took of the boys.

Saturday's Activities

2010-11-01T11:19:00.000-06:00

On Saturday morning, our friend Angela called and asked if we wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens and do the Scarecrow stroll. I said of course because it sounded like alot of fun. I had a lot of fun looking at the Scarecrows and watching my boys running around. Thank you Angela for inviting us to go with you!

This Potato head scarecrow was the boys favorites. It had a second set of features and a hat that you could play with. About the time that we came upon this, Bauer started getting pretty hungry. Angela took Keagan and Deker to play with this while I found a bench close by to sit down and feed Bauer.

Taking a much needed break.

Andrew got home from work that night and we decided to have a fun dinner. I saw an idea to make a snake here from Paula Dean. I think I either rolled it out to thin or didn't seal it up good enough, but all the cheese leaked out and it so it didn't turn out all that cute, but it tasted good.

After dinner, we watched the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown while eating Pumpkin Fluff Dip (recipe found here on Smithalicious). While also passing out treats to the few trick or treaters that came by. It was a very fun night spent together as a family.

Trunk or Treat

2010-10-30T20:13:00.000-06:00

Friday night our ward held the annual Trunk or Treat. We had a great time. We also had a fun guest with us. My Grandpa Smith (my boys Great Grandpa) was passing through town on his way to Washington and because he was tired, decided to stay with night. My boys were very excited to have Great Grandpa here and to come to the Trunk or Treat with us.

A few weeks ago, Keagan and I were discussing what he wanted to be for Halloween, after I said no to Giraffe (he was that last year) and Elephant (I didn't want to have to try to make that), he said a Cow and I told him we could do that. After pondering for a few days, I decided that since Andrew wasn't going to be at Trunk or Treat with us, that I would have the three boys be cows and I would be the farmer. I made the hats, attached ears & horns and then put white spots on black sweats. For Bauer, I decided that I would want him in the carrier so that my hands would be free and so I decided that I would make his costume to be split up the back so that I could slip it over the carrier. We used an old pair of black sweat, cut up the back seam, slid them over him and pinned and sewed legs holes using the the existing leg holes, then added arms. I am pretty happy with how it all turned out.

We are going to go out trick or treating on Sunday night so that we can enjoy it as a family and I am hoping to get a better picture and some individual pictures of each of the boys that night.

The past week or so, Keagan has said some funny things in regards to his/our costumes. First of all, one day he was talking with Andrew about being a cow and in the process of that conversation, Keagan decided that he would be a Dairy cow. One night last week, I had the boys try on their costumes to see how they looked. The next morning, Keagan was coming down the stairs and the very first thing he said to me was: "Mom, I want one of things that you squeeze and milk comes out on my costume." I, of course, said absolutely not.

Then Sunday night, we were at some friends house having dinner. They asked what we were going to be for Halloween. Keagan said that him, Deker and Bauer were going to be Dairy Cows and that I was going to be a Farmer. Keagan then asked me if I was going to have a pitch fork. I told him no and he said, "But what if there is a bale of hay that you need to lift up." Then I told him I didn't have a pitch fork and he said "But you can make one".

Mummies

2010-10-28T22:37:00.000-06:00

My sister Marie called me today and gave me a great Halloween craft idea. I loved it so much that I decided to do it today with the boys. You will need a cardboard box (like a cereal box), white material cut or torn into approximately 2 inch strips, eyes (I cut 2 circles out of blue paper because that is what I had and put it onto a bigger white circle) and a hot glue gun. If you want to make it look a little nicer, you can wrap your box in white paper, I didn't have the time to do that. Start with a little hot glue at the bottom and begin wrapping the material around the box.

My boys had so much fun that after wrapping the cereal box they wanted to do it again, so I went to our recycle box and found two granola bar boxes. Keagan wrapped his, then wanted eyes. Deker wanted eyes as well, but he ended up putting his material inside the box. They were very excited to show their creations to Dad when he got home.

Thank you for the wonderful idea, Marie!

Painting

2010-10-27T22:53:00.000-06:00

Today's Halloween activity turned out to be really great because it kept Keagan and Deker occupied for quite a while. I also learned that if I need something to keep them occupied for a while, I just have to get the paints out.

I got these little ceramic things that came with the paint brush and three paints at Michaels for really cheap the other day. When I opened them, the paint wasn't very good, but the boys had fun with them anyway. Here they are the beginning of the activity.

After a little bit, Keagan said that his paint was gone and asked for some more. I got out our washable paints and put three different colors on paper plates for them to use. They quickly got very messy and I was glad for two things....#1 The paints are washable and they come off and out of clothes very easily. #2 I put down newspaper. Here is Deker after he finished painting his little cat and decided to move onto his plate and newspaper. Keagan's area looked a lot like this, although Keagan didn't get quite as much paint on this hands.

Their finished product. You can tell that Keagan's witch was done mostly with the paints that came with it. All in all it was a fun project for the kids and gave me a little piece of sanity while Bauer took a short evening nap.

In other News....

2010-10-26T22:38:00.000-06:00

About 3 - 4 weeks ago, Bauer started to try to grab at the things we were using to eat or drink with. But I kept forgetting to buy baby cereal on the shopping list. But last week, I finally managed to remember to get it. Probably because I had the luxury of grocery shopping by myself.

The first time Bauer tried the cereal, he was more interested in chewing on the spoon. On the third try (Friday), he really enjoyed the cereal and actually ate it. But then that night, he spit up A LOT a few different time and then he continued to spit up quite a bit the next day. We were sure if it was the cereal or something I ate, so we have taken a break from it until he stops spitting up so much and then try it again hopefully later this week.

Monday night while we were carving pumpkins, I was holding Bauer and tried to take a drink out of my water jug. Bauer thought it would be fun to try to take it away and chew on the handle.

One other peice of news...On Sunday morning, I looked at my boys all dressed and ready for church and I thought they looked especially handsome so I tried to snap a quick picture of them before rushing out the door. Too bad I didn't notice that Keagan was slouching and Bauer didn't look too pleased either. That that is what you get when your church starts at 8:20 am.

Sunday was the first time we had a child participate in the primary program. A couple of weeks ago, when I got Keagan from his class, we were told that he needed to know the first article of faith for the primary program. When I was getting the boys changed out of their church clothes that day, I asked Keagan if he would say it with me, but instead, he said "No Mom, I can do it myself". He then proceeded to tell me the first article of faith all by himself.

On Saturday morning, they had a practice at the church and Deker was quite sad without Keagan and when it was time to go get Keagan, he was very excited. As soon as Keagan got in the van, they started playing extremely loud. I told them that they needed to be quite because we were in the van. That is when Keagan said "Mom, my teacher told us to use our outside voices so that our parents could hear us say our part". That was fun to explain to him.

It was great to see all the kids get up and say their part and sing their song. It was so good to see our sometimes shy boy up with this class participating with is class and even be able to hear him at times.

Cookie Suckers

2010-10-26T22:05:00.000-06:00

Tonight (Tuesday) we made Halloween cookie suckers. I saw this idea on How Does She, but we did a couple of things different. For the Mummy's I didn't want to buy the candy eyes, so I used mini chocolate chips for eyes instead. Then for the Tombstones I didn't want to buy black candy coloring and I didn't want to buy green candy melts, so instead is used a color mist food color spray for the tombstone. After the tombstones and color mist was dry, I piped the RIP on and then piped some lines at the bottom and used green sprinkles to try to make it look like grass.

Andrew and I were too busy making sure that Keagan and Deker didn't eat too many cookies that we forgot to get the camera out. We didn't want very many of these sitting around our house, so we packaged them up and took them to some of our friends so we didn't have to eat them all. Here is the quick picture I took just as we were walking out the door to deliver them tonight.

Carving Pumpkins

2010-10-26T21:49:00.001-06:00

On Monday night we carved our pumpkins. It ended up being a very fun evening. Bauer was being kind of fussy that night, so Andrew and I had to carve our pumpkins in shifts, but even though it took a couple of hourse, Keagan and Deker happily sat there the entire time. After I helped Keagan and Deker carve their pumpkins, thye both kept themselves very entertained. Keagan entertained himself by using the poker to poke holes in his pumpkin and Deker kept entertained by putting the pumpkin insides in and then taking them out over and over and over again.

Here am I helping Keagan carve his. He wanted rectangle eyes, rectangle nose and rectangle mouth.

Deker happily playing with his pumpkin.

Bauer helping Daddy design his pumpkin.

Deker playing taking the pumpkin insides out after putting them in.

Three of my boys busy carving/playing.

Our pumpkins...Andrews is the one the left, mine is next, Dekers is after that without a nose and Keagans is on the far right.

The pumpkins lite up at night.

Halloween Activities

2010-10-25T17:39:00.001-06:00

A few days ago I decided to start doing a Halloween craft or activity every day. We started on Saturday with Pumpkin shaped rice crispy treats. We even drew faces on them with some black icing gel I happened to have in the cupboard.

On Sunday we made skeleton and pumpkin wreaths. This was accomplished by putting white footprints on black paper and orange palm prints on orange paper (although, I think I should have done orange on white or white on orange). After they were dry, we cut them out, drew faces on the pumpkins and then glued to a circle cut out of a cardboard box.

Next up.....Carving pumpkins!

My Fall Wreath

2010-10-19T22:27:00.001-06:00

I absolutely love to sew and create things. My problem is that I am not very creative. Thank goodness for the wonderful Internet and for all of the crafty people out there that take the time to share all their wonderful creative ideas with others. Here is another example...I found this great wreath idea on Bugaboo. I fell in love with it. So, I used a wreath form that I had and picked out some fall colors of yarn and proceeded to follow this lady's wonderful instructions. Here is how it turned out.

Manly tea Party

2010-10-19T22:13:00.002-06:00

There is this great blog called I am Momma - Hear Me Roar. I fell in love with her blog because she has two boys and makes very fun things for them and she gives me lots of ideas to do for my boys.

A little over a month ago, she did a post about a Little Man's Tea Party that she did for one of her boys. I thought it was such a fun idea and so Andrew and I decided to have a fun little party with a few boys over. When I told Keagan about it, he was so excited. Yesterday (Monday) we had our Manly Tea Party. We had so much fun. When the boys got here, they put on their bow ties that I had made using this Tutorial, they then decorated their hats with stickers.

After decorated our hats and getting dressed up, we proceeded outside and had an obstacle course. They were to crawl through the fire truck, over four little step stools, up the ladder of our playhouse, down the slide and back to the fire truck. They then played outside having races and swinging.

Then they came in to have a lunch of tie-shaped sandwiches, chips and grapes.

Dessert were these cute mustache shaped cream filled chocolate cakes (Andrew was the great artists behind all the drawing).

We then played bean bag games which included throwing the bags through the alligator's mouth.

The afternoon was finished off by playing with playdough until the party was over. The boys then got to take home their hats, bowties and some playdough.

I ended up with an extra bowtie and decided to put in on Bauer for fun while we were all playing outside. Within minutes, he managed to get it turned and in his mouh for his chewing pleasure.

I had so much fun planning and hosting this party and my boys had fun playing with the other boys.

Andrew's Birthday

2010-10-12T22:18:00.001-06:00

Today was Andrew's Birthday. We had a really fun day. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to get the camera out, so there will be no pictures on this post.

We started the day out right by having the yummiest Cinnamon Bun Pancakes (the recipe can be found on Smithalicious). These are Heaven! After breakfast, we headed down to the Discovery Center and we all had fun playing around there for a few hours.

For dinner, we went to Red Robin. At Red Robin, we handed our waitress Andrew's birthday certificate for a free burger and Keagan asked if they were going to sing to Andrew (through no coaxing of Andrew or I). So after dinner, they came and sang to Andrew and gave him his ice cream sundae.

We finished off the evening eating yummy brownies. It was as fun day spent together as a family.

Happy Birthday, Andrew, I love you!

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-12T22:12:00.002-06:00

On Monday night for Family Home Evening, we decided to go to the pumpkin patch/Corn Maze. All the boys had a lot of fun. Keagan and Deker excitedly ran around doing all kinds of things. Bauer slept off and on and was pretty happy until the very end when he started getting hungry and it got dark and cold.

The first stop was the giant chair. Bauer was pretty upset about the wind blowing in his face. After this picture, I put in in the baby Bjorn facing me and he fell right asleep.

There is this really fun big bouncing thing. I wish I got a picture of the whole thing, because it is hard to describe. Last year, we couldn't even get Keagan on it, but this year he ran right up, took off his shoes and started bouncing away. And wherever Keagan goes, Deker goes.

Of course, you have to stop for one of the usual photo spots.

Then it was off to pick out our pumpkins. Keagan and Deker were very excited when we finally got to the area that had the smaller pumpkins and eagerly picked out their own.

Luckily, Bauer woke up just as we picked out all our pumpkins and we were able to get a very cute picture of him in the wagon with some of our pumpkins.

Then of course, we had to get one of all the boys.

After that, Keagan and Deker played in the corn box. Think big sand box but with corn instead of sand. I was holding Bauer, who was starting to get fussy and Andrew was paying for our pumpkins, so I didn't get any good pictures of that.

Next up was the cow train which is pulled by a tractor. The tractor part is very important because that is one of Decker's favorite things.

Of course, Andrew had to get in on the action. I sat out with Bauer, who had fallen asleep again.

After the cow train, we went on a tractor hay ride around the corn maze and pumpkin patch. At this point is was getting dark and so none of my pictures turned out. We were so glad that we went because we all had a great time. We are hoping to go back again, maybe a little earlier in the day and try out the corn maze.

Drums & Trikes

2010-10-12T21:51:00.000-06:00

I am not sure if I have mentioned this or not, but this year I tried to do a Co-op preschool with other ladies that have kids the same age of Keagan because we had a lot of fun doing it last year. Unfortunately, it fell through. So, instead I have been doing my own little preschool with Keagan and Deker. I have decided to focus on one letter during the week. We practice writing the letter, as well as other crafts and activities. I have had a lot of fun doing it.

This past week, we talked about the letter D, so what did we do...We made drums. The boys have had so much fun with their drums, especially Deker. That has been one of the first things he has picked since we made them.

A couple of weeks ago was the annual Moppet Togs sale. I look forward to this sale every spring and fall. It is a really big consignment sale for all things baby and kids. We have found some really great clothes and other items for great prices. This year, one thing we purchased was a little trike. We were originally going to save it for Christmas, but instead we got it out this week. Deker was in love at first sight.

Bauer's Balancing Trick

2010-10-12T21:37:00.001-06:00

Here is a cute video of Bauer balancing on Andrew's hand. I loved how he kept laughing so I wanted to post it.

Mohawk's and Brotherly Love

2010-09-28T15:11:00.000-06:00

One day a couple of weeks ago, while the boys were in the bathtub and I was getting their hair washed, I started playing around and put it up into a Mohawk. Keagan thought that was pretty cool (which means Deker thought it was pretty cool as well) and so after they were dressed, I combed their hair like that. Then they went to bed.

Fast forward to this morning....I was getting the boys dressed and combing their hair and Keagan asked me if I could "do his hair up in the middle like I did it that one day". After thinking for a moment about what he wanted, it finally came to me. He was quite excited that I said yes, I would give him a Mohawk. Now our boy's hair doesn't go strait up, so it is more of a curl-hawk, so I combed it all to the center and tried to curl it over all in the same direction. This picture was taken just a couple of minutes after it was done and as you can tell, it was already starting to come out of the Mohawk as it is drying. By an hour later, you could barely tell that it was done this way.

Last Monday while Deker and Bauer were napping, I decided to take Keagan out to have a little one-on-one time with him (Andrew was home that day) and get him some pants, shoes and a jacket to get ready for the cooler weather that should be coming soon. One of the stores we went to was Target. While there, I was looking for some crayons and Keagan saw a Super Why coloring book, he asked if he could get it and I told him yes because he loves to draw and color. After we left that area, he said "Mom, I didn't get a book for Deker". I told him they could share the Super Why one.

When we were paying for our purchases, Keagan asked for a sticker. When we were getting in the van, he said "Mom, I didn't get a sticker for Deker".

After we were done shopping, I took him to TCBY for some Ice Cream. While we were eating our ice cream, he asked if we could get some for Deker.

I thought that it was so cute and sweet that he would keep thinking about Deker and wanting to get things for him as well.

The Zoo

2010-09-28T14:53:00.000-06:00

Friday, the 24th, was mine and Andrew's anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have been married for 6 years. Because it was our Anniversary, Andrew took Friday and Saturday off of work. We started the day with breakfast at Cracker Barrell. It has been along time since we have been out to breakfast and boy was it good.

After breakfast, we all went to the Zoo. It has been since before Deker was born since Andrew has been to the zoo with us. Keagan had a great time showing Andrew all around the zoo and showing him his favorite spots.

The first place we went is to the "African Plains" which has the giraffe's, lions, this cool hut house and the cool jeep below.

After that, we went to the Giraffe slide and the animals that you can play on. The boys had fun sliding and and playing while I fed Bauer. This is the first time that Keagan has gone down the slide himself.

Deker thought this was a really cool house.

Here are our little birds. Their hands are blurs because they are flapping them like wings.

Train Time

2010-09-28T14:36:00.001-06:00

Last Sunday (Sept. 19), I read in the paper that a Steam Locomotive from the 40's was coming into Boise that night. We went down to see it come, but when we got there, we found out that it was delayed by a few hours. We were sad about that, but we also knew that it was going to be there until Tuesday morning and that we could come see it on Monday. So after the boys woke up from their afternoon naps on Monday, we headed down to see it.

We decided to wait in line to go up the steps to see the conductor and look inside the engine. The boys had fun playing around. At one point, they even blew the old steam whistle.

Keagan & Deker

2010-09-19T16:16:00.000-06:00

I have talked about this on this blog before, but my boys LOVE to read. They will look at books on their own, they will ask us to read and if people are over, one of the first things they ask them to do is read to them.

There are times when Keagan & Deker will each get a book, get up on our big blue chair with a blanket and read their books. What are their books of choice, anything to do with boys things: tractors, trains, airplanes, cars etc. For instance, the book they are reading in this picture below...Deker is reading a book called "Builder" which has pictures of tools & diggers. Keagan is reading a book called "I work with Digger" which is shaped like a digger.

I was trying to get a mommy preschool co-op (each mom takes turns teaching preschool at their house) going with Keagan again this year. He loved it last year and we wanted to do it again, but we couldn't get enough Mom's to do it, so it ended up falling through at the last minute. I decided that I would do a little preschool with Keagan and Deker this year. We started last week and we are going to talk about a different letter each week and do different activities that go along with that letter. Then, when a holiday comes, we will take a week to learn about the holiday.

I am focusing on letters to mainly get Keagan a chance to start learning to write his letters and so Deker will start recognizing his letters. So far, this has been a very good thing for all of us. It has also gotten them to be excited again about drawing and coloring. This week, they have gotten their crayons out about 4-5 different each day.

Keagan & Deker love to treat their bears like babies. I usually end up swaddling up their bears at least a few times each day. It is fun to watch what they do with them. Deker usually just carry's his swaddled bear around shushing and bouncing it like he is trying to get it to sleep (He sees Andrew and I doing that with Bauer).

Keagan, likes to feed his bear (nursing like I do, I hope I am not traumatizing him). If we are sitting down to eat, he will want to feed him food as well, but I tell him no on that, because I don't want the mess. He also likes to put them in various beds so they can sleep. This gets even more fun because he will go in my room, close the door. He will then come out a few minutes later and stand in the hallway and then a minute later he says, I think he needs me to help him go to sleep.

They both also like to put their bears in the swing and the bouncy chair. I can't count how many times Andrew or I have gone in our room to go to bed only to find an animal or two in there "sleeping". Here is a cute picture I got of the two of them with their swaddled bears.

Vera....Do those bears look familiar? They are the one that you gave each of them when they were born.

Family Pictures

2010-09-17T18:37:00.000-06:00

Our talented friend, Elizabeth was kind enough to take our family pictures a few weeks ago. I am in love with how they all turned out. The only problem now is deciding which ones to use. If you have any opinion I would be very happy to hear it.

First up, the family ones. We have a big 16 x 20 picture up on our wall. I can't decide which one to use. I think the first one, Andrew thinks the second one.

Up next, the boys together...

Then their individual pictures. I think that I have the cutest kids ever, but of course, I am just slightly biased. I can't get over their blue eyes, it takes my breath away.

Keagan showing his personality - 4 years old

Deker who refuses to look at the camera - 2 years old

And Bauer who doesn't really care - 4 months old.

Good Family Moments

2010-09-15T17:12:00.001-06:00

On Sunday night we decided to make Grilled Pizza. If you haven't ever made them, you are missing out because they are delicious. Since we were having grilled pizza, we decided to eat outside. After dinner and playing, we built a little fire in our firepit, roasted marshmallows and have some Smore's. I haven't had a smore in several years and I forgot how yummy they were. It was a great night spent with our little family and spending the evening outside.

Another fun moment is seeing all of my boys playing together. This picture of all my boys playing together just melts my heart and helps me to remember how important it is to stop and take time to play with your kids.

Deker Again???

2010-09-14T16:52:00.000-06:00

Do you ever have those moments when your child gets hurt and you feel so bad and you have to keep reminding yourself that is wasn't your fault, and the bad guy in your head keeps saying, you should have been watching them better? Last night was another of those times for me.

After dinner, Keagan wanted to make something, so we decided to make No-Bake cookies. They were quick and the kids would be able to have one before bed. Keagan & Deker got chairs up to the stove and we started making cookies. The kids were having fun taking turns stirring. I turned off the stove, took the pan off and was stirring in the oats, when I looked over as Deker started crying and saw him take his hand off the hot burner. I yelled for Andrew to come put his hand under cold water. After a few minutes of holding his hand under cold water, Andrew was able to convince Deker to let him look at it. That is when he realized that he burned the upper part of his palm and all of his fingers.

I called our good friends Dan & Angela (we rely on them ALOT don't we?) and they let us use some good burn gel that they have. All night, when his hand wasn't in water, he kept pointing at it saying "hot". We finally got him to sit down with me and put his hand in a bowl of cold water and watched a cartoon to let him calm down.

When it was time for bed, we gave him an ice pack wrapped in a washcloth and Andrew had to lay with him until he got into a deep sleep to keep it in his hand. We were afraid that Andrew would have to sleep with him the entire night and keep putting the ice pack on. When we checked on him a few hours later, Andrew put the ice pack back on his hand and he slept the rest of the night.

This morning, he sas a really big blister that covers the entire upper part of his palm and small blisters up each finger. I am very grateful that he is being really careful and not using that hand (which is gratefully his left hand). We happened to have a Dr.'s appointment for Bauer's 4 month check-up today, so we had the Doctor look at it and he said we had done everything right and to watch to make sure the blisters didn't break. Now to keep an active 2 year old from breaking those precious blisters, now that sounds hard.

Deker's reading spot

2010-09-11T22:08:00.000-06:00

Wednesday was my Laundry day, but lately it has been hard to get it all done in one day. So on Thursday morning, it was all still sitting out, waiting to get folded. Deker found a cozy spot between Bauer's car seat and a Laundry basket, squeezed himself in with a book and started "reading" his book.

Primary Activity

2010-09-11T22:00:00.000-06:00

Keagan had a very busy day today. This afternoon was a primary activity and they were told to bring a cardboard car. On Sunday, Andrew asked Keagan what kind of cardboard car he wanted and told him a Monster Truck. So after dinner Andrew, Keagan & Deker went out to the garage, picked out a box and started designing and cutting out Keagan's Monster Truck.

When Andrew about half way done, he had Keagan get in the truck to see how it was fitting. Deker then realized what was being done and was upset that he didn't have one. So, after Keagan's truck was cut out, we put the boys in bed and Andrew when back out to the garage, found another box and made one for Deker. Here they are the next morning, happily trying our their cardboard monster trucks.

Monday was painting time. Keagan, of course, choose blue because that is his favorite color and Deker/Andrew and I choose yellow for Deker because he can actually say that color. Andrew put his painting clothes on and we got out some old shirts of ours for the boys to wear.

Here is Keagan all ready to go to the Primary activity with his Truck. By the way, I don't know if you can see it or not, but there is even a "truck bed" in the back where they can put things.

Here is Deker's finished truck. Deker was napping when Keagan when to the activity, so you just get a picture of Deker's finished truck.

Soccer!

2010-09-11T21:35:00.000-06:00

For the past year, I have been wanting to put Keagan in a local soccer league. There is one that is really close to our house and I have heard really good things about. It is six weeks long and it is only on Saturdays. It only lasts for 1 hour starting with a 15 minute practice. It seems like a great way to see if it is something your kid is interested in. I always hear about it too late to sign up. But this time, I called to see if it was too late and to be asked to get on the mailing list for next time, but instead she said she had room for Keagan.

Today was Keagan's first game. He was so excited about playing soccer and every day, sometimes twice a day for the past week, he would ask if today was his soccer game. I was a little concerned about how Keagan would do because he always gets scared and shy of new things. I made sure I got there a little early before it got too busy. We went up to his coach and they started kicking the ball around. The coach had a little practice and then they started playing. I was so proud that Keagan was out there playing.

After about 20 minutes, he came over crying because there was so many kids. I talked to him for a few minutes and with the help of our good friends Dan and Angela who came to watch him play, he went back out there. Then after a couple of minutes, he got kicked in the knee and that was the end of it. I really hope that next week he will get back out there and play again.

Yesterday, Keagan said to me: "Mom when I am playing Soccer you need to say Go Keagan, Go Keagan, Go Keagan". I told him I would. This morning at breakfast he said to me: "Mom, when I am playing soccer you need to say Go Keagan, Go Keagan, Win Keagan, Win Keagan". I again told him I would. When we were driving to his Soccer game, he again told me "Mom you need to say Go Keagan, Go Keagan, Win Keagan". I told him I would and that he told me that this morning and he said "I know, Mom, I just don't want you to forget".

Here are a couple of pictures, courtesy of Dan and Angela.

BSU Football

2010-09-11T14:13:00.000-06:00

Monday night (Labor Day) was BSU's first game of the season. We decided to have some friends over to watch the game together. We all put on our Blue & Orange. Andrew even got out his orange pressure garments from years ago to help cheer them on.

On Sunday Andrew, Keagan & Deker made football and helmet shaped Sugar Cookies and then I had fun decorating them with Blue & Orange frosting.

Earlier in the week, our friend Dan called Andrew to see if there was a way to hook up 2 TV's downstairs. Andrew thought the idea was a good one and decided to try it out. It even worked.

Of course, our boys can't let an opportunity of having so many people over go by without convincing at least one person to read a book or two. It is a good thing that we have such good friends that will do it.

Everybody brought snacks and we had a great time watching football, talking, eating and playing outside during halftime.

Caliente Time

2010-08-31T23:37:00.000-06:00

I am, once again, behind on my blogging. I meant to get this post up a few weeks ago, but it never happened, but I did want to make sure and record it.

At the beginning of August, my three boys and I had a wonderful trip to the great metropolis of Caliente, Nevada. Where is that you ask? It is a very small town which consists of about 1,000 people which is where I grew up. On Wednesday, August 4, my amazing mom flew up to Boise. We picked her up from the airport and we began our drive to Caliente. Because it was lunch time, we had sandwiches packed which we ate as soon as we got in the van. Our drive went well and we arrived in Caliente around 10:30 that night.

Thursday morning, my Dad along with most of the guys in the family went on their annual Guys campout/Fishing trip. Andrew wasn't able to go this year because he wasn't able to get the time off. Because all the guys were camping, my sister Marie came over from Cedar City with her 4 girls Thursday afternoon. We had a lot of fun playing with them, here are some highlights:

On Friday, we helped my Mom get her classroom ready (she teaches 3rd grade), by putting up bulletin boards and a few other things. The kids had fun playing on the playground outside her window and drawing.

After that, we called our Sister-in-law, Melissa that also lives in Caliente and we all went swimming. My boys did not like that idea, but after talking, asking, begging and finally just dragging them in the water, they finally decided that it was OK. Keagan decided it was OK when my sister, Marie, took him and showed him how the scoop the water with his hands like a tractor digs the dirt. Deker decided he loved it after we started throwing him up and dipping his head in the water.

We enjoyed the nice cool evenings by on walks each night. One evening when we were headed out for a walk to the park, Marie and I thought that my Mom was inside, but when we looked out, we realized that she had already started walking with the grandkids. I thought this was too cute a picture to pass up.

Deker had fun crawling under Samantha.

And then trying to do it himself.

Bauer enjoyed sitting on his blanket and being outside.

Marie left on Saturday and my Dad, my grandpa, my brother Cory and his oldest boy got back that afternoon. We had a nice relaxing Sunday. On Monday, Andrew flew to Cedar City and drove my parents car to Caliente. We all enjoyed having him with us again.

That evening we had went to Kershaw Ryan State Park which is a beautiful park about 5 miles away. We had a cookout and enjoyed our last day in Caliente. My boys started by playing in the little wading pond with their Dad.

After that, they had fun digging and playing in a dirt hole and climbing around.

On Tuesday, we sadly said goodbye and started our long drive back home.

We all had such a wonderful time visiting with our family that week. Thank you Mom & Dad for such a wonderful time and for making this happen for us!