Mother's Day...2012

I had such a good mother's day this year. Josh and the kids actually surprised me this year with some awesome gifts (I usually go buy my own gifts if I want anything). Before church they handed me a gift bag and I got so excited because I didn't know what was inside.

Inside were some cute cards, a couple chick flicks, and a curling iron I've been wanting for a long time (it's not in the package because I used it on my hair for church). Jantzen also made me some cute things at school complete with a personalized gift bag...

I did order something for myself though (before mother's day) because I usually do and I have been wanting them for a very long time. Plus, my whole family knows how much I LOVE shoes, especially wedges. Unfortunately the color (shown) wasn't what the actual color looked like (insert sad face here), so I exchanged them for the black pair that I am now waiting to have delivered to me. I can't wait...they are so comfortable and sooo cute!


Here's a close up of the card Josh gave to me. I laughed when I opened it. He's never given me a card that is all sweet and mushy, he always picks out the funny/borderline dirty ones. That's okay, I love them!


Here's the card I got from my awesome kids. I was told that Jantzen was trying to pick out a "Toy Story" card for me, but Jaron said no. I like this one, I can tell Josh helped them pick it out...




This is a "Recipe for a Great Mom" flowering pot that Jantzen made for me. I loved all the information he wrote on it...


...and this was a coupon book he made for me. I had to get a picture of this particular coupon because when I read it out loud I told him that I was definitely going to cash this one in and he said, "Oh crap! Can I take that one out?". I quickly replied with a "No!"...it's a keeper!


I'm so happy and grateful that I get to be a mom to these little angels. Even though they try my patience at times, I still love them more than anything in the world and I can't imagine my life without them in it.


I feel so blessed to be able to be a stay home mom and to be involved in my children's lives, thank you Josh for being such a hard worker to make that possible. Being a mom is the greatest job ever!

Father/Son Campout

Last night Josh took the boys on a father/son camp out with our ward. Jaron and Jantzen were so excited to go, they love camping and we didn't go at all last summer. After they got out of school, they packed up the car and headed to Mt. Charleston for the night.

I asked Josh to get some pictures of all of them up there since I wouldn't be there to do it and this is all I got...just some pics of the boys hiking and goofing around, but no pictures of himself with the boys. I guess that's okay because Jaron and Jantzen looked like they were having a fun time with their friends...

The boys told me they did a lot of hiking and loved it. Another thing they got to do was shoot guns. Jaron was super excited for this part of the camp out. Josh took up some of his guns and both the boys got to shoot them. Jantzen didn't really say much about shooting the guns, but Jaron told me all about it. He shot a 22 caliber hand gun that he said is his new favorite gun...he LOVED it!

This is him shooting it...




The boys all said they had a fun time and they can't wait to go camping again. We'll for sure go this summer because it's nice to get out of this heat!

Helpful Little Sister!!

Little sisters are the best! Okay, so Jaron and Jantzen didn't really think so on this particular day a few weeks ago.

My kids love to put puzzles together and every once in a while they get the desire to bring out every one they own and put all of them together on the kitchen floor. The boys even let Jaedyn join them this time and they all seemed to have a blast. I loved that they were all getting along! When Jaron and Jantzen were done with all the puzzles they made the mistake of leaving them out instead of putting them away. When they left the room Jaedyn started having some fun of her own. She put all the puzzles, that's right, every single piece from every puzzle in the same drawer and mixed them together very well.

Just look at that sweet face, she was so proud of herself for putting them away...

Here Jaedyn's saying, "Yay, I'm such a good helper!"...not according to your brothers you're not.


And then she realized, "Uh oh!"...


Here she said, "This is a puzzle"...yes it is and you're so cute!


Jaron and Jantzen got so frustrated when they saw their puzzles, but it's their own fault for leaving them out. Now they get to have fun separating them.

I really think Jaedyn was just trying to help her brothers clean up the puzzles in her own way, so you can't really get mad at her for that...you should just laugh, like I did!

Field Day...2012

Last Friday the boys had their field day at school. This year for their field day shirts, the PE teachers bought white t-shirts and the kids all got to tye dye them in art class. They did one color for each of the grades. Jaron's grade had green shirts and Jantzen's grade had yellow ones...I thought it was such a good idea.

Jaron participated in his field day in the morning. They started off with hula hoop tag...

Here's Jaron taking a water break in between games...


Next up was a race with a ball and a cone. They had to run back and forth, each time going a different way (i.e. galloping, skipping, etc.). I loved the first picture because it looks like Jaron only has one leg...


Then, Jaron's class went to an obstacle course where they had to throw balls into a hula hoop and jump mini hurdles...


...and throw a bean bag in the air clapping three times before it came back down, then jumping in a bag...


Jaedyn had to try out this whole bean bag thing too since her big brother was. She was having so much fun and was so cute doing it!


Jaron played some sponge volleyball. They had to dip a sponge in water, then throw it over the net. It ended up being the boys pounding the girls with the sponges. Unfortunately Jaron didn't get the sponges very much. He just wasn't as aggressive running to them as some of the other kids were.


Next they played a water balloon game. There was a water balloon in this ball and it had a timer. If the timer went off when you were holding the ball, it'd pop the balloon and get water all over you...you always hear a lot of screams from the girls with this game.


This was another relay race Jaron did. He started off having to run down a numbered mat, then running back and forth through some poles, then he had to try getting a ball in a cup, and the last thing was bouncing back to the start on a big ball...


After the relay race there was a parent spraying kids with a hose, so Jaron joined in since it was a little warm outside. I loved how I caught him jumping up to get the water...


...and he got soaked and loved it!


The last game Jaron's class played was a scooter game where they had one team knocking over cones and the other team had to set them up. I'm surprised there were no fingers that got run over in this game.


Here's Jaron's class when they were all done with their field day (Jaron's on the front row on the left, in between Caitlyn and Sierra). They all got popsicles and then went back to class.


Jantzen's class had their field day in the afternoon. They also started out their fun playing hula hoop tag. Jantzen insisted on wearing his hat, so you can't see his face in a lot of the pictures...


Next they went to the water balloon ball. Too bad for Jantzen, he didn't get wet at all with this game even though he wanted too.


Then he went to the relay race where he had to run the number mat, run back and forth through some poles, toss beanbags into a frisbee, bounce on a big ball...


...and try to get a ball into a cup. I loved his face in the first picture...it's so funny!


I asked Jantzen to give me a smile as he was walking to the next activity and this is what I got...


The field day activities were changed up a little bit for the younger kids. Jantzen's class got to play a game called "Drip, Drip, Splash". It's played just like "Duck, Duck, Goose", except it's with water. He had to dip just a little bit of water on his classmates heads until he came to who he wanted to chase him, then he had to pour the whole cup of water on their head. He thought this game was fun.


Then his class went over to the scooter game. I could tell he had a lot of fun on this one. I think Jantzen might have an admirer because this girl in the white visor kept following him every where he went...


After the scooters, Jantzen went to the ball and cone race. I liked the first picture because Jantzen was racing against his friend Jansen (in the blue hat) and he thought that was cool...


Next up was another relay race where he had to toss a ball into a hula hoop (with one of his best friends, Jacob, by his side for moral support)...


...then he went to the bean bag toss in the air. His face in the big picture makes me laugh, the bean bag was headed towards his face...


...and then there was the bag jumping in which Jantzen fell down trying to get out of his bag. He just laughed, so it was all good!


The last activity Jantzen's class played was the water sponge volleyball. He was a little more aggressive than Jaron was, so he was able to throw the sponge a lot. His purple sponge cleared the net and got some good air, his orange sponge barely made it over the net, and his teal one wasn't so lucky...it hit the net pretty hard and splashed water back at him, but he loved it all. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time.


I also got a group picture of Jantzen's classes (that's right, he has two teachers this year and they combine classes for activities). If you want to play a game, you can play "Where's Jantzen"...see if you can find him in this picture.

I had to post both of them because they were all smiling so sweet for me in the first one...


...then I had them give me a funny face and they were just too cute doing it.


Jantzen and his friends all got to enjoy their popsicles, then it was time to go home.

It was a perfect day weather wise for the boys to have their field day. I had so much fun hanging out with them, having water fights with their teachers, and taking lots of fun pictures. I'm so lucky to be able to participate in my kids' school activities. I'm kind of sad that this is Jaron's last field day in elementary, but I know I'll still have fun with Jantzen in the coming years.

Jaedyn's Beauty Salon

Jaedyn got a vanity for Christmas and she has been playing with it and her hair accessories non stop. A few weeks ago I caught her doing Jaron's hair in the bathroom, it was so cute to see. Mainly because Jaron was being such a willing participant in the whole process...

Jaedyn did take a quick break to dry her hair a little (and check herself out in the mirror)...


Then, she let Jaron have a turn doing her hair...


Then, it was back to Jaron getting his hair done. He got it dried, combed, curled, and straightened with the flat iron...


At one point Jaedyn got a little too excited with the flat iron and she pinched Jaron's ear in it...and she laughed! He should be used to getting his ears hurt with a flat iron, I accidentally burn them when I'm doing his hair...


I think Jaedyn got sick of doing Jaron's hair in the bathroom, so she made him move to her vanity...


Jantzen didn't want to be left out, so Jaedyn fixed his hair too. I think she was trying to pinch him with the flat iron here, just like with Jaron...


I think Jaedyn had more fun playing around with Jantzen than she did actually doing his hair (her blow dryer actually blows air)...


Jaron and Jantzen were such good sports to let Jaedyn do their hair, I could tell she had so much fun with them. Since she doesn't have any sisters, it's nice to know that her big brothers are willing to play pretend with her to keep her happy. I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again...Jaedyn has the best big brothers!

Happy Little Owie!

The other day, after Jantzen started riding his petal bike, he had a little crash on it and scraped up his leg. He never really said anything to me about it until he noticed the scab he got from it. He showed it to me in the car and told me that he thought it was cool because it was a smiley face...

...he's so funny and observant!

I guess if you're going to get an owie, make it a happy one.