A Whole Lotta Nothin'



Since it has been over a month since I have posted anything on the blog I thought I'd better put something up, even if it's a whole lotta nothin'.

 

Brody had his first pinewood derby and his car won first place!! Lucky Boy!

 

 

 

 

He was SO excited to build and race his car, we have a pretty small pack so the race was pretty low key. (We are missing a few boys who couldn't make it that night.)

 

Miss Joslyn is the little mother of the nursery, she is twice as old as most of the kids in there (she misses the sunbeam deadline by 4 days) so she always comes home and tells me "mom that baby was putting a toy in his mouth. ewww." But she LOVES nursery AND her nursery leaders so I am happy leaving her there.

 

She is also my little shadow don't even think that I am exaggerating when I say this but, whatever I am doing, she is doing it too.  Brothers are boring and that's all there is to it.

 

Baseball season has started, well games won't start until the 29th but they are practicing like crazy!

 

Last week I helped at the school a lot, it was teacher appreciation week and lets just say our teachers got spoiled!! Our PTO President is a good friend and she does everything 110%, I love the girls on the PTO, so helping out is actually quite fun.

 

So this week I am trying to catch up on laundry...trying is the key word.  It's climbing the walls people!

 

The Sawtooth Realy is in 23 days WHOA!!! I am running the downhill leg this year, I am a little bit nervous about it, OK a lot.  I've been working on it but running has always been hard for me sometimes I wonder why I do this... Oh, it's because I love those girls! (GO HOH!)

 

You know my spring cleaning list? It's done. :) I even got my carpets cleaned in the WHOLE house, that was the highlight of my year so far. (not really but I was pretty excited to have it done!) Nate has put up the backsplashes in the bathrooms and laundry room now and I love the way it looks.  We have also been plugging away at other little projects around the house, I'm glad I have a hubby that likes to be busy!

 

The boys got to go to Moab with their dad again this year and they had so much fun! Miss J and I stayed home and had just as much fun! Did you know they make fingernail polish that washes off with water?  Well they do, I found that out after I meticulously painted Joslyn's fingernails and toenails. :)

 

Books.... Hmm I've read a book called Small Change: The Secret Life of Penny Burford By: J. Belinda Yandell It was a very quick read and a great little story!

The Guardian By: Gerald N. Lund  It is his newest book, good, and big (he always writes BIG books)

 

Only 7 days of school left! Wowee! That's good because it is getting hard to get these kids in bed by bedtime these days. Speaking of bedtime it's 10 min past, better sign off! :)

 

♥ to you who still reads this silly blog of mine!

Easter and then some

 

It is tradition, every year on the Saturday before Easter we go up to Albion to the Easter Egg Hunt.  We love it because it is pretty low key, not a ton of other people and they stuff their eggs with good stuff, like Snickers, Twix, and Milky Way candy bars oh... and MONEY!! Each of my kids got between $1.50 and $2.00!! Hence the grocery bag, we're not fooling around with tiny Eater baskets here. ;)

 

The kids are divided up  into age groups 0-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-11, The only age group that parents can help is 0-2, so Joslyn had to do it on her own this year...WAAAA! Oh, and wait one minute where's the 12 yr olds? That means that this is Braiden's last year to hunt (legally) WAAAAAAA! I think he can do it one more year...if he wants to. I have one too old for the Easter Egg Hunt...man I am getting old!

 

Here we are checking out our loot, when the lady announced that the only bunny that was found was the 0-2 age group, so Hudson ran back out there to his section and guess what?!?! He found the bunny!!!

 

Here he is picking out his basket!!

 

 

The winners!

 

After all that excitement we went to Grandma's house to color Easter eggs:

 

 

And play with the stuff from Hudson's prize basket. It was such a fun day and the weather was so so so nice! We all ended up with rosy cheeks by the end of the day.

Easter Sunday after church we went to my mom's for dinner, Here's the kids in their Sunday best:

 Ready for the egg hunt:

Scott LOVES doing this every year!

 

Much to my dismay, this one wasn't very enthusiastic about it, guess I am going to have to add better incentives to the eggs, because "as long as you live under my roof you WILL hunt for Easter eggs..." (just kidding) When I was growing up we would hide and re-hide and re-hide those eggs, good times.

What a Cutie!!! She is showing off her Princess gardening tools and gloves!

Hudson has been begging for Nate to take off his training wheels and now....HE CAN RIDE!!!!
It only took him about 10 minutes figure it out!! WOW!! He has been riding that little balance bike for two years so he really had the hang of it he just had to learn how to pedal and balance! His brothers were both in 1st grade before they rode a two-wheeler and Hudson is only in preschool, I am impressed!!

Books: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly  If you know me I am ALWAYS reading a book I love reading, unfortunately there hasn't been too much good lately I've been striking out major! I read The Garden Plot By: Kristen McKendry, the story itself wasn't all that bad it was just the author that annoyed the crap out of me, I am so naughty, anyway she quoted a hymn every other page. UGH! If I want to read the hymns I will get out the hymn book, sorry!
Then bad got worse, I will just tell you that I am not a book quitter, I hardly ever quit reading a book especially one that I just paid $9.99 for in the Kindle Store. :/ grrr! Beautiful Ruins By: Jess Walter, it was the Costco book pick and I had read another good review on it so I decided to try it out, well the "s" word turned into the "f" word and it was a little filthy. If that wasn't enough it was SO random, I can handle a book that jumps from one time and place to another time and place but in between those times and places were these random chapters that left you wondering what it had to do with anything. So I quit about 1/4 of the way through :/   Take it from me, save your money, and time.  skip this one!!


I have been elbow deep in spring cleaning, here's part of the list:

 

I am just taking it day by day, if I don't have a ton of time that day I choose a smaller job if I have a lot of time I try to tackle the bigger jobs. I will just say, I hate cleaning blinds, it is by far my most dreaded household chore.  It is when blind cleaning time comes that I think of hiring a cleaning lady. :)

Bathroom light fixtures are today's job :) Nate is plugging away at his list too, look:

 

 

 

 

SO LONG 90% dead pine trees...

 

 

Hello 100% alive trees! SO much better!

 

We also have plans to build a garden shed for the mowers and all the lawn tools etc. I am so excited!!!

 

Sorry that was a LONG post! Thanks for sticking with me!

Braiden's Birthday

 

 

Braiden turned 11 earlier this month!!! WOW! He had a fun and exciting birthday weekend! Friday after school we picked up him and all of his friends from school and took them swimming to 1000 Springs.  Those boys had a blast and swam for 2+ hrs. the only reason they got out of the pool was because they were hungry! We stopped in Twin and took them to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, yummy! That just might have been the most fun and relaxing birthday party I've ever done! hip hip!

 

Saturday, his actual birthday, we got up early and headed to Pocatello for Bella's baptism, and then hit Costco before heading to Idaho Falls for Ashlyn's baptism.

 

 

 

Here's those two sweet girls on their special day!

Special day for all three...The birthday boy and the baptism girls.

I had to do this...on Ashlyn's blessing day I took a picture of these three who are so close in age Dec (Brody) Jan (Bella) and Feb (Ashlyn)

Ashlyn           Bella                Brody

Now here they are...8 years later!

Ashlyn Brody Bella

All the girls

Regan, Kailey, Ashlyn, Bella, Emily

Joslyn, Lillian

 

* just a little side note of one proud auntie, my two nieces (Kailey and Em) did the music for Ash's baptism and I was BLOWN away!!! Kailey has passed me up on the piano, as in she played a song that I had to practice to death to be able to play. WOW!  Em lead the music, and they are so young, think of how great they are going to be when they are older!!! 

After a little Chuck-a -Rama and some sledding we headed for home, we stopped at Dick's Sporting Goods and Braiden got to pick out a new pair of shoes for his birthday.

Home at last...at about 10:00 he got to open the rest of his birthday presents...

Since 2 days of partying is never enough we went up to gma and gpa Catmull's after church on Sunday for dinner and cake...and more presents. :)

 

Make a wish!

I think he had a great birthday, as for the birthday party, we'll be doing that again! It was the perfect activity for a late winter/early spring party.

Will You Be My Valentine?

Here's my little Valentine, well one of them any way.

 

We had a fun Valentine's week, I got the kids little mailboxes and put little surprises in them all week long.  I think I had just as much fun leaving them as they did finding them each day!

The 5th grade classes had a Valentine box contest, Here's Braiden's box...

 

We got on pinterest to look for ideas and this is what he chose.  He had to make the box himself "with very little help from a parent." Which was hard for me! We had a great time working on this together, (you know, me gathering the proper supplies and talking him through it. ;) ) It turned out great!

 

The kids got Peter Pan for Valentine's Day they have loved it! Hudson especially, he begged me to get the costume box down because there is a Peter Pan costume in it.  Well, he has been wearing the Peter Pan hat everywhere we go now.  It's great to be 5!

Brody is SO funny, he is my "What If..." boy Oh the things he comes up with! Sometimes the entire dinner conversation consists of What ifs, and when he gets rolling it gets everyone else involved too, even me..."what if we all ate our dinner?" (yeah I'm a grouch like that.) Here's an example, I think from watching a little too much Peter Pan. Brody- "Mom what if we could fly to Disneyland?" or another popular one is "what if our house was made of__________________?" (insert any number of foods here)  (fruit loops was a recent one) You name it, he has what if'd it, money falling from the sky...yup! Food falling from the sky...yup. A Disneyland ride in our backyard...yup. He has an imagination, I'll give him that!

This is Joslyn on Sunday...(you might wonder why all the pics I take of her are in the piano room...Well whenever I say, "let's go take your picture" that's where she goes. And it has the best light. Anyway I spent more time on her hair than I did on mine, she was sooo good about it too!

Pretty Baby, she is still my baby, I think I'll call her that forever!

Speaking of Sunday...I watched the season finale of Downton Abbey Sunday night...all I can say is OH Season 3 you make my heart ache!!! Too bad it's over, it went sooo fast! Now we have to wait another 10.5 months for season 4 to start.  Never seen Downton Abbey? Well you have plenty of time to get caught up!! (I have seasons 1 & 2 on DVD if you need to borrow)  I think I'm going to watch season one of Call the Midwife (I've heard it's great!)before season 2 starts at the end of March, that should tide me over for awhile!

The boys have been playing basketball for the last month and a half, they love it and I really enjoy watching their games and Nate is wondering what the heck he got himself into coaching both of their teams!!! There is only a week left though, I never take pictures because the lighting in that gym is horrible!! But they are having fun, and when that is over we will get a little break until baseball starts!

I had a brief lapse in judgement when I sent in my registration for the Sawtooth Relay again...eyeyiyi! Natalie is on our team this year, we are so excited that she agreed to do the race with us!! Let's pray for better weather this year!!!

This n' That

~Today was a snow day!! yipee!! If they would have had school, I would have had to go and help with the treat sale.  Yay! Got out of that one! ...Just being honest...don't be mad!

~There is a 4 foot snow drift on my front step. :)

~It's either feast or famine in Joslyn's clothing department, since she just had a birthday and Christmas, we are feasting.

She loves her purple sparkly pants!

~Joslyn got a Tinkerbell movie for Christmas and she has watched it like 25 times, you'd think it was the only girly movie we owned or something... :)

~ My goal for the new year is to be a better visiting teacher. My new calling is, visiting teaching coordinator. There will be no x's on my beat, only check marks!

~The sound of this makes me want to get up and waltz around the room!

 

 

Sunday nights are now the best for TV, Revenge then Downton Abbey, ahhh!

 

~ hudson--Hudson just typed his own name.

 

~ Speaking of Hudson, when I picked him up from preschool he hopped in the car and said, "Mom, you know The White House? It has a bowling alley in it and a swimming pool with a DIVING BOARD! And a movie theater, and you don't even have to leave, you can just go to the movies." me-"WOW, cool should we live in The White House?" Hudson- "YEAH!... well you have to be the President."

It was like dejavu because I had that exact same conversation with Brody about 4 years ago!

My kids must be really impressed that a house would have those things in it.

 

~Ever heard of Project Life? I am itching to get this. I've been eyeballing that kit for a month. I'm a scrapbooker at heart, I used to scrapbook every photo, that is until we got a digital camera. :( I did a bit of digital scrapbooking, it was fun. But this, this is it! So easy too! I will keep you updated, just need to take the plunge.

 



Happy Birthday Joslyn!!

Joslyn turned 3 on January 4th!!

Her birthday cake this year, The Ombre Rosette Cake:

 

I love the way it turned out, and it was SO easy!

Here she is wearing her "beautiful dress" she put it on herself. :)

 

Make a wish sweet girl.

 

Even the inside has some ombre action.

 

 

Cinderella doll :)

 

"Puzzles!" She loves doing puzzles!

 

 

Cinderella dress ups = one happy girl!

 

I told you that we don't quit partying until the 4th :)

 

Joslyn went from a baby girl to a little girl in a year, she changed SO much!!

~She loves to help... we always let her put away the silverware when we empty the dishwasher, if you do it without her it makes for 1 sad girl! She loves to help me cook, if she hears the mixer start, she comes runnin' and grabs a stool so she can be in on all the action.

~She loves to play with her babies and her kitchen and she loves to bring you pretend ice cream cones!

~She is still not a huge breakfast eater which is totally opposite from her brother, she is happy with milk...and maybe a little yogurt an hour later.

~No naps for this girl just 12 + hours of sleep.

~If she sees Hudson playing my kindle she asks if she can play, if I say no she'll say, "Why Hudson?" funny!

 

We are so glad to have our little Joslyn she definitely brings and element of sweetness into our home!

 

Happy Birthday Hudson!!!

Hudson turned 5 on January 2nd!!

To celebrate we had everyone over for meatball sandwiches and glass block jello . Most people stop partying on the 1st... not us, no way, we keep on going until the 4th-at least!!

He wanted a Spiderman cake, I made this same cake for Braiden when he turned 4 so I guess it took me 7 years to forget how nightmarish it is to make... It wasn't really that bad, it was way worse the first time.

I baked the cake the day before and Hudson kept asking me, "When are you going to paint the cake mom?  Mom when are you going to paint the cake?"  So when I finally got it "painted" I called him up to see it, he thought it was so cool! Mission accomplished and worth every piped star!

1. When he wakes up he is hungry and needs food right away.  Usually the first words out of his mouth are, "mom, what's for breakfast?"
2. He loves Superheroes; Spiderman, Batman, Power Rangers, Lego Ninjago and "bike guys"
 and you can often find him in costume of any one of these. Sometimes you may find him riding around the neighborhood on his balance bike wearing a batman cape or his motorcycle helmet and gloves, it is quite comical!
3. He loves to play any electronic device, the computer, my kindle, dad's phone, Braiden's ipod, it doesn't matter.
4. He loves going to preschool and "when I learn all my letters I can go to kindergarten." Now that he's 5 he's all of the sudden all grown up.
5. He loves the color RED! He wears it, his favorite shirt is a red one with a bike guy on it, or a red one with Spiderman on it, or just a red one! He colors with it, don't even try to give him a red/violet crayon or you will get an earful!


I wondered what we were thinking having a baby in January's bitter cold! When we brought him home from the hospital I think it was like 8 degrees. 
I thought the world was going to end when we got home from the hospital and discovered that Brody had an ear infection.  So we called the Dr and rushed him in (they squoze us in at the end of the day because they knew we just had a new baby.) The Dr. joked that we were the first and last patients for the day; first to discharge Hudson from the hospital, and last to care for Brody's ear infection.
The transition from 2 -3 kids was a tough one!! We sold our house in Omaha, Nate graduated from dental school, we moved half way across the country found a decent rental and started a new job all before he was 5 months old! But, we are so happy to have this smiley brown eyed boy in our family!