My Dad

Ok, I realized I need to take more pictures of my dad!  haha nobody's smiling, but I'm going with what I have!

I have the greatest dad!  I know you think you do, but I do.  There was a time (my teenage years) when things weren't as easy between us all the time, and I'm sad that I let that happen.  But I am so happy with the relationship we have now.  He is a busy guy!  He has a newish job that keeps him very busy and he travels a fair amount too.  He is the bishop of their ward, also a busy job.  And he has the farm to take care of and spends many of his Saturdays out there doing stuff!  I feel bad that he's so busy all the time, but I also know he likes being busy and productive too.  And it makes the times when we get to chat extra special to me!  I love getting phone calls from him.  He'll call randomly on his way home from somewhere when he's stuck in the car, and I am always so glad for the call.  I talk to my mom regularly (which I also treasure!), but usually my dad isn't home and misses those talks, so it's really nice to talk when he calls.  I feel like I can talk to him about anything without worrying about what he'll think.  He tells me all the time how much he loves me and how nice it was to read my blog and see the pictures, how pretty I (and the rest of his daughters) are.  His calls are really always a pleasant surprise and a pick-me-up to my day!  I always feel like daddy's little girl afterwards!
While the reason for this post is obvious, it being father's day, I am so glad for the chance I've had over the last week or two to think about my dad and how truly grateful I am for him!  So thank you dad!  For coming to all of my games.  For coaching (or trying to) me.  For always trying to help me to be/do my best.  For setting aside time to talk to me.  For not yelling at me when I crashed the dirt bike.  For trying to teach me how to ride a dirt bike!  For taking me on camping trips.  For working so hard so that we could have such a nice life. For taking us on family vacations.  For letting me and my rowdy kids invade your home once or twice a year for an extended period of time (ok, this is mostly mom, but I know it changes things a bit for everybody living there!).  For always praying for us and caring about us.  For doing your best to be the best dad and husband.  For teaching me the importance of hard work and early rising and having pride in a job well done.  And lastly, (I'd say mostly, but I really can't decide which of these is most important!) loving mom and making sure we all knew it all the time.  

I could go on, but I'll leave it at this for now, and just say how much I love you dad!  Happy Fathers day!  This virtual verbal hug will have to do until I can be there in a month! (yay!  Only one month to go!)  I love you and mom so much, and being far away helps me to really treasure the times we do have together!  Thanks to both of you, I couldn't love you more!






Also A little note for the other men in my life!  I have been so blessed!  Happy Father's Day Grandpa!

Happy... Men are Great day Devin!

And another big shout out to my husband and father of my children!  They adore you, they have been scheming for days about father's day, and we all love you so much!  Thanks for all that you do!  

Photo Bomb!

Another random picture bomb for y'all!  Ok.. it's for me.  

It's summer in AZ!  It's already well over 100 every day, and that means unless we are swimming, we are not outside!  I bought some popsicles though to try and have the kids outside for a little while.  I fill up buckets of water for them to play with and send them out with a popsicle thinking that will buy me a few minutes... well it does... like exactly 3 minutes.  they sit in this little circle together (which I just love) and try and eat their popsicles faster than they are melting, and as soon as their done they are back inside.  Not interested in buckets of water or toys or bikes.. swimming pool, or nothing!  

My amazing friend Pam sent me these little boy ties that she made!  I had no idea she had an etsy shop and these are seriously well made, cute, professional type ties!  I think I need some lessons on how to make my own, because the only tie I've made for my boys was ok, but definitely a little home made looking!

All I wanted was one picture of the boys together with their ties... it didn't turn out to be a good morning for pictures!  This is what we got!

Whew.. that's when I gave up.  But Brenna wanted mommy in some, so we kept trying...

And finally, we had a birthday party for Brenna.  It was a little late, but it was a pool party and it was fun!  I think everyone had fun, and it wasn't too crazy for me either.  We had 10 kids, 5 friends and 5 cousins.  I wish I got pictures of the swimming, but I was getting too wet to dare take the camera in... thankfully after we got out of the pool my photographer sister-in-law grabbed my camera and started snapping away!  Thanks Aly!

This one is silly faces and it makes me laugh a lot.

Trying to play toss the sponges into the buckets.. in the end the buckets were pretty close together.. haha

Spin the bottle for presents!

Notice how the circle gets smaller and smaller as time goes on.. the girls just keep sneaking in closer and closer and closer to the presents!

These girls worked up an appetite!  I could barely get the watermelon out the door!

Throw one in of cute baby Graham.. so tiny!

And finally decorating their own cakes... I am getting progressively lazy with cakes.. I started out strong and every year I get a little less excited about making the cake!  So this was a great solution!

These (above and beneath) are like my favorite two pictures from the party.  Mason was trying to make his, but has trouble with spreading.  He was trying and then Brenna offered to help and she spread his icing for him... it was so sweet and I'm glad Aly brought it to my attention and caught it on film!  Sometimes, they're best friends! 

Most of the cupcakes looked pretty much like this.

And then since then we had cousins sleep over that night, then we babysat some other cousins the next day after we dropped of the first cousins, and then I had a girls night with the SIL's where we stayed out way way way too late (got home at 3 AM) and the next day we got invited on a double date so we scrounged for a babysitter (thanks to Aly and Justin for helping out!  We owe you!) and had a fun, despite that I was basically a zombie, and then we had more people over for games yesterday, and now it's Sunday and I am excited to relax... we'll see if the kids will allow it!  It's great having family so close, and keeping busy in the summer!  Besides that my house is getting a little too messy, everything is happy and fun!

One Of Those Days

Man, so yesterday, many times, was just one of those days!  You know those days where you start off all right and with a good solid plan, and then...
It's not a long story... I have been doing better lately about things.  I made a schedule for myself for cleaning the house and I have been staying pretty on top of it.  I've been taking the kids swimming and doing arts and crafts.. you know, being a good wife/mom.  And it's felt good!  So yesterday was Monday, and I was eager to tackle the weekend mess and so I started with a plan!  I got up and did laundry first.  And while sorting I got annoyed at all the stains on whites, so I decided to do some bleaching.  I've been meaning to forever.  It never seems to work great for me though, so this time I filled up the bathtub downstairs with water and bleach and stuck all the whites in there.  I was going to let them soak all day long.. maybe even overnight!  So I shut the curtain and didn't tell anyone so that I wouldn't find any curious hands in the water.  Then I rounded up the gang and decided to get grocery shopping out of the way bright and early. 
Taking three kids to the store is never fun.  It's sometime manageable, usually a bit of a nightmare... but I do it quite often.  This was a stressful trip with both Mason and Brenna out of the cart and on some sort of high, they would not stay by the cart for any amount of bribing (or threatening).  I lose Mason like 3 times and Owen just wouldn't stay seated in his seat in the cart!  I was sweating bullets by the end!  The last thing on our list was watermelon and the kids were so excited to pick one, they started trying to pick them up out of the box.  I was trying to strap Owen in since he was intent on suicidal activities over in the cart and I'm telling the kids don't pick them up, stop it, don't pick them up, wait for me!  They were to heavy for mason (thankfully), but Brenna got one up and out of the box (to my surprise!) before her ears opened up to what I was saying.  She sort of panicked, plus it was very heavy and almost tried to throw it back in the box.  Needless to say, she shattered the watermelon.  In the entrance in front of plenty of people who were probably all looking at me like "why is this lady here letting all of these hooligans running lose and wreak havoc?"  
It didn't get better.. I picked up the watermelon cracked in half and offered to pay.  They said not to worry.  I was still struggling with the kids a bit during checkout when the lady decided to actually check my ad matching (which was correct by the way) while I wrestled with the kids (still trying to convince Owen there was plenty to live for and throwing himself out of the cart was not necessary).  Whew!  We got to the car and got home and everyone survived.  Boy was I ready for quiet time though!

So the day went on, and it wasn't so bad.  I told the kids I'd take them swimming after I cleaned the pool.  Brenna was in on my little secret in the bathtub, but sworn to secrecy.  The problem is.. it smelled quite strong!  After we swam (which is chaotic in it's own right with Owen around) and came back in, I let everyone stay in their swim suits for a nice relaxing afternoon/evening outside mostly... that's when Mason came running back from the bathroom, where he had just relieved himself.  He excitedly told Brenna (in a bit of a whisper) that he had found clothes in the tub.  I heard (because of my super-mom ears... does he think that's whispering??) and quickly told him he's not to touch and leave them totally alone.  A few minutes later he needed to go pee again... can you guess what happened?  I couldn't have.  Yup.. he peed, in the tub full of clothes and water.  His reason?  He thought that was the toilet.  Uh huh, that's what he's going with.  

It was actually not a bad day, we had fun in the pool and got our chores done and bedtime went well and I love my kids very much!  But when Jeremy got home from work late that evening and I was telling him about my day I realized... it had been one of those days!  I think for a while I will stick at shopping at the store with free child care while you shop, and monitoring more closely Masons trips to the bathroom... apparently we need to work on some things in that area!  I should have taken some photos of the watermelon or something to accompany, but unfortunately in those moments when some people are aware enough to snap a photo quick, I am mostly embarrassed and frustrated and not thinking of my camera!


Oh, and on the up and up, today I went to the doctor and the library with the crew, and it was much less eventful!  But I'm not tempting fate, we will stay in the rest of the day!