We have a backyard!!! And the boys get to play on grass!! I love it. Can you tell? They do too. Teagan loves to turn on the hose and make mud. What else does a 4 year old boy need? Maybe a tramp, but we'll get there someday.

We also got some guinea pigs last month. They are cute. A little loud sometimes when they see you and decide that they are hungry, but still cute. The brown ones name is WeeWee. I think. Teagan kinda named him. He got the name from the way that the guinea talks to us. It sounds like an alarm. You know, WeeWeeWeeWee. So his name is either WeeWee or Alarm. Trent likes to say his name is Al. So I guess it's just whatever comes out of your mouth.

The black ones name is Sneaker. Ty came up with this one. He says that he thought of it because he sneaks around. And he thinks of the shoe too. :)

Did I tell you that Pixie got lost? She was let outside to go potty and the backyard gate was open. I didn't notice that until I opened the door to let her back in a couple hours later. Oops. She had run off. We looked for her for days. But nothing. So now we are hoping that she's somewhere safe with someone that loves her. We miss her and Teagan brings her up sometimes. After we didn't have her for a while, that's why we got the guineas. They are a good substitution I think. The boys love them. They get to take them out in the backyard to eat the grass. It's their favorite activity. They'd stay out there all day if we let them.

Chore list

Yesterday morning I woke up to a clean house. It was wonderful. The boys had made a list and did all of their chores before going to Lowes. Later in the day I found the list and thought I'd share. Just imagine the *'s to be boxes with checks.

Things that Trenton and Teagan and Tyler did.
* Made beds
* Emptied the dishes
* Cleaned are rooms (but not Teagan)
* Got dressed (but not Teagan)
* Ate breakfast (but not Teagan)
* brushed teeth
* Organized bake yard (Teagan didn't help he only made it worst)
* Clean up downstairs (not Teagan) (mostly Tyler)
* Clean under table (Tyler did this)
* Clean table (Tyler and Trenton)
* Vacumed downstairs (only Tyler)
* Clean hallway (Tyler only)
* Sweep under Guinie pig cage (only Tyler)

As you can see, Tyler made the list. I even wrote it word for word. I wish I could've scanned it in since this doesn't do it justice. It makes it sound like Teagan is a terrible cleaner upper. Which, yes, sometimes he is. But I do have to say that usually Teagans room is the cleanest out of all three of them. And he cleans it all by himself. :) I love my little boys. And all of their quirks too.

Soccer Mom

I never wanted to be considered a "soccer mom". But this year all three of the boys are playing soccer. It's such a weird thought to me. And they are sooooo excited. Today I went to the store with Teagan and bought him some cleats and shin guards (he starts on Thurs.). When we got home and the boys were home from school, he went straight to them and told them that he just got new shoes. "With bumps on them!" Then we checked out the shin guards. As I was showing him how to put them on, Tyler was watching and decided to put his two cents in. I was telling Teagan that you put the shin guards on under the socks. Tyler was so sure that it's over. Man that kid doesn't budge. I had to google it. How sad is that? :) This is going to be a big change for us, especially with them all on different levels and teams. Maybe I will have to consider myself as a "soccer mom". Just for a little bit. :)

Oh happy day

It's almost time!!!! I can't wait to see you all!

Weekend of birthdays!

Happy Birthday to 4 WONDERFUL people. Cody, Josh, Genica and James!!! I love you all very much and hope that you all have such a great day on your birthdays.!

I still can't believe Cody is now 12! Holy Schmokes!!!! :)

Refinished

Here is my newest project. It's the first time I ever tried to refinish something. It's three windows. They started out like the tall one on the right. Then I painted it the grayish blue.
When that was all dry, I put on a coat of black. After that was dry, I sanded it like crazy. Ok, it wasn't like crazy because I could only do it by hand, and after the first half of the first one, my hand was dying. And I had to do THREE!

When that chore was finally done, I put on a coat of stain. I think they turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I'm excited for them to go up. Now all I have to do is finish painting our master bath, and then maybe repaint our room, cuz lets face it, the color scheme I had in my head didn't look so good in person. It needs to be lighter. Yes, lighter. I hope I can get it done.

Over the weekend

This weekend I went out with some friends to do some scrapbooking. I love it. It's always a blast! This time, we went to a store called Archivers to scrap for free during the day. Now, the bad thing about that is we walk right through the store to get to the back where you get to work. Several times when I've been there I've seen these CUTE wall hangings that I have wanted to do. This time, I gave in and just did one. It took me several hours to do, pretty much cuz we talk the whole time and giggling is not that much of a help when you need to concentrate. :) I stamped the background paper myself too. It's not pre- bought. So it took me even longer to do that. But I like it. It will go great with our furniture for our living room that should be coming into our house in the next 2 weeks (keep your fingers crossed).

Next time I'll have to show you the windows that I am painting. I'm so excited for them. I really hope they come out in real life the way they look in my head :).

Birthday wishes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my two wonderful sisters! I hope you both have a wonderful day! I am so glad that I am your sister. You both mean so much to me. I love you like crazy!! :)

A little thought

Don't you love it when you have to go through your childs room finding 2 garbage bags full of trash, 5 big black garbage bags full of goodwill valuables, and toys you had no idea that you had. Yeah. That was my life today. It does look better. I just wish we could get a shed to put all the storage stuff in there and get his room to actually look like a room.

More Pictures From Abby's Baptism

I thought I'd post some of the pictures Jabon got from Abby's baptism and BBQ. I put most of these on Facebook, but I know we have a few family members that look here but not Facebook.

Abby in her baptism dress

Millie.

Genica, James, Peter, Shelly, Grandma Pearl

Mom, Lori, Genica

Brayden fell asleep munching on Poppa

What a cutie Grandkid 11 is!

For the love of Spider-man

The other night we watched Spider-man. We hadn't seen it for a while, so I don't know if Teagan remembers any of it. After the movie I started singing the song. Teage told me to stop so he could sing it. It was so cute. I love it when kids sing songs their way. But of course, while I was recording him, he got distracted by Tyler coming into the room and trying to sing it with him.

He also loves to sing his ABC's, Twinkle, Twinkle and some primary songs. I gotta record him more often. Especially with the way that he pronounces some stuff. With him (hopefully) going into preschool next year to help with his speech, I won't have that many more opportunities. Maybe you'll see more soon.

Bowling for Spring

Whoever named the vacation "Spring Break" has never lived in or even visited Divide while this break is going on. There is nothing "Springish" about it. Snow, snow, snow was what we had. And with that, there wasn't much that the boys and I could do for it that was not going to kill us by freezing to death. So, I took them bowling for the first time. They loved it!

It was really fun. We were only able to do one game because it was really close to nap time and Teagan was letting us know that, but he still did pretty good.

The boys posed as bowling balls. See their mouths are even round like the thumb hole. I'm really glad I was able to take them and do this. Tyler has been bugging us for a long time wanting to go bowling. Next stop is roller skating.

Our newest addition

Meet Pixie!!! She's our newest addition. We just got her yesterday after church. A family from church had puppies. Actually it was one of my young women. (I am now recently in Cub scouts.)She is a malti-poo. Maltese and poodle. I've been wanting a dog for a while now. And was having a hard time finding a little one that Ty was not allergic to. He seems to be just fine with her. YAY!!

We are also trying to kennel train her. I'm definitely no pro at that. So I hope we're doing it right. She does have some tear stains, but we are giving her food that does not have red dye in it to see if it helps clear it up. I just gotta get rid of the hair that's already stained.

She's just so cute and loveable. Her favorite toy right now is a pink and white tug of war. I think it's her favorite cause it's the only one she can fit in her mouth. Her food and water are over by the kitchen sink. But she wouldn't go in the kitchen. The floor is too slippery. So I had to put my kitchen rugs as a runner so she can get there. Some minor adjustments for a cute little friend.

The boys love her. Teagan wants to carry her around everywhere. I have to constantly ask him to put her down. These last few weeks, if you asked him anything, he would answer that he's getting a "drill" puppy. That's girl puppy in Teagan talk. He was so excited!

Trenton wrote her a note. It says " Dear Pixie you are one funny puppy." "Dear Pixie you are cute." "Dear Pixie you are one loveubl puppy." Dear Pixie I love you." Then you flip the paper over and he drew a picture of him and Pixie. It has hearts and swirls all over it. That's why there's so many "Dear Pixie"s.

Announcements

Just in case anyone needed reminding....

Peter and Genica are having their baby soon. Genica will be induced February 24. HOORAY!!!

If we are still in this ward in June, Abby will be baptized June 19th. We'll let you know if the date changes.

Heather and James are getting married in Glacier Park on August 19th.

I'm just putting these dates out there. Everyone is welcome to come hang out with us in June. We'll let you sleep on the floor.

I do think it's funny that each of these events happen around other special events: Our new nephew will be born just after JC's birthday. Abby will be baptized on Pete and Genica's anniversary. Heather and James are getting married on Lori's birthday.

I guess some dates are special all the time, for lots of reasons. Josh just guesses some dates just come around once every year.

Happy Birthday Teagan

Happy Birthday to my little man. I can't believe that he's 3!! Where does the time go? Today Teagan got to go to McDonald's and have some fun with friends. There were 5 of his friends that were able to come. I think he had a really good time. It's so easy to be 3. Everything can be exciting.He got some Chinese food for dinner and some cupcakes for dessert.
What a pose he did huh? He is most definitely 3. I love how their personalities show around this age.
Buzz Lightyear is a new favorite (again) around here. I really want to see the 3rd movie. I bet it's great.

He also got a dragon. He walks, flaps his wings, snaps, and growls. Teagan is snapping along with him.
One more year has come and gone. I'm getting so old. My baby is 3. When are they going to stop growing!?!?!?

Santa

I always loved going to see Santa. I'm so glad that all of my boys are still young enough at heart to enjoy it too!Tyler brought his list to give to Santa. I'm sure Santa enjoyed that a lot! Then Tyler asked if he could pull on his beard. He let him too. Tyler was told that he could only do it a little bit, otherwise it would hurt too much! :) Ty had been looking forward to that part for over a week! Silly guy!
Teagan actually sat on Santa's lap this year without crying! Yay! It's a miracle! I guess watching all those Christmas movies this year really helped. He is starting to like this jolly fat man!
Trenton also brought his list for Santa. He's unfolding it here. It was very important to him that Santa know everything that he wanted. I hope the boys have a great Christmas this year. Even if they only got one thing off of their list.
Merry Christmas to all of you! I love you and hope that you have a GREAT Christmas!!!

Our Cruise

Well, we did it. We actually went on a cruise. It was great too! Neither of us got sea sick. Which is probably the best part of all. We had an ocean view room. It took me three shots to get a seagull in the picture. I think it looks pretty cool.We had a lot of fun. It was nice to be away from the boys for a little bit and have time just for the two of us. I tell ya, we needed it! We went mini golfing on the boat, ate delicious food, saw a hypnotist, a comedian, and a show. It was great! They let you eat food all day and all night. And the only food you have to pay for separately is the sushi. Good thing I was going near that stuff!
When we got to Ensenada, James and I took the taste of Mexico tour. We got a tour around the town with them telling us how terrible the Americans are, and they are so great. Or at least, that's how it seemed. Then we went to a restaurant where they taught us how to make our own 3 course meal. It was really good too. Then we walked around town for an hour or so. That's when our money decided to fly right out of our pockets! Crazy how that happens.
In our room every day on the boat, we got a new towel animal. They were so cute! The only think I didn't like was how they would take away the old one to give us a new one. I wanted to have a whole jungle. Oh well, we did get picture with every one of them. They were so cute! Here's the elephant.
And here's the monkey. It was hanging around all day! Do you like James' monkey face. Yes, he's the one in the blue shirt. Then they gave us one that we didn't know what is was, so we just called it the baby. It was really cute too.
Now that we've been on this cruise, we've decided to do it again sometime. A longer one. 3 days is nice to get to know if you like it or not, but it's not quite long enough to do much. On the third day we were finally able to direct ourselves around the boat without our map. And that was the day that we disembarked. It was really good. I had a really great time, and I am so ready to go again. Any takers?

Peek a boo

Can you find the REAL animal in this picture? Teagan and Trenton love to hide in the stuffed animals. And yes, most of them are from when I was little. I still love the teddy bears. My boys have even kept their original names that I named them.

Poor Baby

To Lori:

I hope you feel better soon. I wish you had some more conclusive information from your surgery. Someone once said, "It is a mathematical fact that fifty percent of all doctors graduate in the bottom half of their class." So, I guess we can't expect every doctor to be like House. Or even Doogie Howser (do you even remember that show---Mom and Dad never allowed us to watch it).

Keep up on your meds and let others help you with the boys---I wish I could be one of those helpers. Sportscaster Bill Walton said, "I learned a long time ago that minor surgery is when they do the operation on someone else, not you."

I love you and I hope you recover quickly so you can have lots of fun on your cruise!!!

Trenton's whistle

Trenton came home from school the other day wanting to show off his new way of whistling. It's extremely funny to us because this is pretty darn close to the way that James' sister Jillian would whistle for their dog. Every time I hear him do it I just laugh so hard. It's so cute.