real life photos

Monday was the first day of Spud Break for my kids and the weather was beautiful. We started the morning by going to the store and getting donuts for breakfast. Lucky kids. We headed out to Idaho Falls and stopped at Arctic Circle for lunch where they got square pumpkins with squishy fright lights. This never happens. Then it was off to a pumpkin patch with a friend where I let them pick WHICHEVER pumpkin they wanted even if it was 50 lbs and I will inevitably end up being the one scooping all the guts out. After the pumpkins were loaded I asked the boys to come pose for one teensy-weensy quick little picture for me by their cute display and this was the immediate reaction -

And he's going . . .

going . . .

gone.

Awesome.

Messy Monday

The house was a bit of a mess this morning- I'll admit it. But I've been busy. We stained the house all day Saturday (which meant the kids had to fend for themselves all day), we were out of town all day Sunday, and I had 6 boys at my house by 10 am this morning (below the average # for this summer by the way). So when someone showed up at my door this morning needing to use my printer and seemed so concerned that I was behind in my housework and still in my pj's I have to admit that I was a little offended. She kept offering to "tidy" up my kitchen while I was waiting for her documents to download on my extremely slow internet. And when I refused, she offered to send her 14 yr old daughter over to help me clean- uhhhhh- No. Thank you. Mortifying. THEN to add salt to the wound she kept asking if I was feeling alright?!?! Did I really look THAT bad. And honestly, the house wasn't even that horrible, I mean it's definitely been worse I just needed a good hour of cleaning time and it was spotless. I know she was just trying to be helpful but please give a girl a break. There are 4 reckless boys living in this house full time and there are up to 5 more boys from the neighborhood who are regulars here. I have a toddler who likes to follow me around and undo everything I've just done (including my sanity) and a husband who works long hours. Couple all that with a girl who all too frequently falls into a "there has GOT to be more to my life than cleaning" slump and you will find that my house is not always showcase ready. Honestly, I'm just glad I got all the tampons picked up off the floor that Teague scattered throughout the front room before everyone showed up.

The things that come out of that kids mouth

Cache: Where are the T-Rex's?

Me: They're dead.

Cache: No, they're with Jesus. He rides them.

He then proceeds to gallop around the living room yelling,

"Woohoo, Yeehaw!"

If you've seen the movie "Up" there's a line in there my kids LOVE to repeat. (The old man is yelling at the contractor). And when they're in the house and yelling to eachother it's funny. But the other day I had just picked up Jonas from Kindergarten and had the windows down because it was actually a little warm (I know, amazing) and as we're passing a group of teenagers Cache yells out the window in a low raspy voice, "Hey you! Yeeaahhh you! Take a bath hippie!"

Cache was doing his "karate" moves down the aisle at the grocery store the other day. A lady walks by and laughs. So he runs over to her and BEATS HER UP!

Who is this kids mother.

Jack The Skier

I'm always nervous to see Jack get off the bus after the ski races. I had watched him race and knew he had won his heat but didn't know how he did overall. So when I saw the huge grin on his face I knew all was well. And I was relieved I didn't have to repeat the "winning isn't everything" as "long as you had fun" lecture from that morning. He placed 1st in the 3rd grade boys! But I didn't get it recorded! I had the camera on the wrong setting so all I got was one good picture. But- Great job Jack, we're proud of you!

One Year Old

How time flies! Teague is a sweet, loveable, BUSY, kid! He really is so happy and pleasant and always giving hugs and did I mention BUSY?! We just adore him! Enjoy these pictures from his birthday. The boys insisted Teague wanted to go bowling or go to a movie for his big day. Since Teague wouldn't tell us which he preferred and I refuse to go to a movie theatre with a one year old we bowled. First thing Jonas did when he woke up that morning was make party hats. I think he did an awesome job. He even made one for the cat.

Travel Trivia

Vacations are a rare thing once you have kids. Vacations without the kids are even rarer, in fact, a trip to Vegas for our 5th anniversary is the only vacation Delwyn and I have ever taken. So for our 10th anniversary we really want to go all out and I've been scouring the Internet for a good deal. But vacations are expensive. Airfare is a killer! So after this realization (and the recent negative 30 and beyond weather) I have renewed my devotion to the one and only Regis Philbin. I admit after losing my could-be vacation to Hawaii last spring I haven't been an avid watcher. But that ends today. I've got till May to plan a trip and Regis is the way, at least the free way. My on-air release has been signed & delivered. The DVR set. My game plan improved and a new "winter-themed" picture of myself taken. I'll confess this picture took me 15 minutes to set up with multiple angles and poses. Nothing says dorky like taking pictures of yourself on a Tuesday morning. But when I'm sipping virgin pina coladas on a beach somewhere I think I'll stop caring.

I WILL PREVAIL!

Christmas/Death Defying Skills/ and Other Happenings

Moley Moley Moley

I got my mole removed. Before- And after. Yeah, it looked a lot worse than I thought it would. And of course the only bandaids we had at home were camoflauge print. Unbeknownst to me we had a baby blessing to go to that weekend in Blackfoot. It took the whole car ride down to convince Delwyn that camo was not appropriate for church and we needed to stop and buy something less conspicuous.

You'll never believe this but I let Delwyn take the stitches out. The man who flat out refuses to trim my hair because he thinks he'll screw up BEGGED me to let him RIP stitches out of my FACE. After a nurse friend assured me there was "nothing to it" I gave in and with a (sterilized) seam ripper and baby finger nail clippers he got it done. He did a good job but I won't kid you I was scared. SERIOUSLY scared. I still get butterflies in my stomach thinking about it.

Teague

In a weeks time he's learn to go down the stairs but not before he fell down them . . . twice. I've found him crawling on the piano keys when I left him on the floor and found him on the floor when I left him in his crib. He got croup. And the piece de resistance, I think he may have swallowed a small pine cone. Christmas 2010

Playing with my new camera Christmas night-

Jonas snuggling with his stocking-

Christmas morning. Seriously, they were fully clothed when they woke up. I really don't know what their aversion to clothes is. Cache's rocket- he was dissapointed when it counted down and it didn't actually lift off.

My camera can stitch 3 pictures together for a panaramic one. Can you see ghost Teague in the middle by the ottoman. That's creepy.

It's a Girl!

And we finally got that little girl we've been waiting for, just didn't think it would come in cat-form. She wandered onto our porch and cried all day until I gave her some milk and -wouldn't you know it- she never left. But she's a good kitty and very patient with the little ones who like to pull her around by the tail. She plays fetch. Is that normal?