Big Change, Big Move...

Jeff's job hasn't been working out, so we have been looking at our other options for a couple months now. Things have been falling into place and we feel like everything is all happening for a bigger reason and we have so much to look forward to!
I'm really going to miss Allen and the great friends we've made here. I love our ward at church and our neighborhood. I've been prepping Tyler lately and told him we will have to say good-bye to our friends and make new friends in California. He said, "It ok, Grandpa's my friend." That made me smile. We are so excited to be near family!

A Few Flippin' Videos!!!!

I've been taking videos constantly with my new FLIP! I love how small it is and easy to just pull out of my bag and start rolling. Here are a few of my fav's!
TYLER'S SWIMMING LESSONS:
By the second day, he was dunking his head under and swimming to his teacher under the water and holding his breath!

JEFF SPINNING THE BOYS:
Why is this their favorite thing to do?

BOYS WILL BE BOYS:
I love the giggling in this one. If you need a good laugh...

SLIP 'N' SLIDE:

MORE SLIP 'N' SLIDE:
Jackson was having the time of his life!

LAST ONE, I PROMISE:
Me on the slip 'n' slide. So embarasing...


Sorry to have a billion videos on one post, but if I don't do it now that I have a chance to sit down, they'll never get added. Hope you enjoy them!

I love Summer Days!

It's been awhile since I've posted because I've been all mom lately takin' care of these little guys. Our favorite thing to do is go to the pool or soak ourselves with the hose in the backyard. Today, we decided on Sherbet ice cream a la alligator pool. It was awesome!

 

And just in case you were wondering why they created swim diapers for babies. This is exactly why:

I got a good laugh out of the way he was waddling around the back yard. And then I put him out of his misery (yeah, right, like he cared) and put a real swimmer on the little guy!

More Tyler Funnies

Man, if I don't write these down, I'm gonna forget. And then he'll be 15 and I'll have no stories to tell him :) Tyler has been so funny lately!

Today we were on a walk with the double stroller. I stopped to write a text to my neighbor and Tyler climbed out of his seat and told me he wanted to run. So he ran on the sidewalk next to me for a good 3 or 4 blocks! I told him to tell me when he was tired and he could get back in. He said "I tired bamorrow". I laughed and said, "yes, you will be tired tomorrow!" Then he kept telling me, "I almost tired" and when his cheeks were red and sweaty, he finally climbed back in his seat!

The other day I was sitting on the couch and got up to do something. I went right back to my seat and Tyler sat in my spot to be funny. I giggled and sat on top of him and said, "Wait a minute, that's not a pillow. It's not soft!" He said, "Mom, I have bones!" He loves watching the Curious George goes to the Doctor episode where the kids trace their bodies and then draw in bones.

One evening I asked Tyler what he wanted for dinner. I gave him a few chioces, "Macaroni and Cheese, soup, or corndogs?" He got really excited and said "Macaroni and Cheese Soup!" Haha. Those are his 2 favorite meals! I laughed and said, "No just plain Macaroni and Cheese." Then he got even more excited and said, "playin' with it, like playin' toys?"

Last week it was a beautiful day so I decided to walk the outdoor strip of stores from Hobby Lobby to Tom Thumb. Usually I drive if I need to do both stores, but this day was just too nice. In between, there are all kinds of stores like Staples, Petco and Bath & Body Works to tanning and clothing shops. When we passed the clothing store, he took one look at the headless manikins and yelled "Oh, his head broke!"  It must have been traumatizing for him to see, because he just kept talking about it, saying "His head fell off" and "His have no head". Oh, and they were girl manikins :) But everyone is a he/his!

Today Tyler took a late 5:00 nap. I hate it when he wont take a nap, falls asleep so late, and it makes him stay up really late. So I called Jeff to see if he would swim with him when he got home. He texted me to tell Tyler they could go night swimming and it would be fun. I told him, "Daddy said he would take you night swimming when it's dark outside" He thought for a minute and said, "Night swimming? Like this..." and put his head sideways, on his shoulder, closed his eyes and pretended to snore.

oink, oink

Today Tyler climbed on my back and said, "I want a piggy bank ride!"

This good day

My blog is my journal, it's my special place. I come here to see my very best friends and my close family. I keep up with my loved ones and those I admire. I love that I am able to upload a picture, type what I'm thinking and read back whenever I want. Things on my blog stay where they're put and they don't collect dust. It contains my favorite memories and my sweetest loves.

Today Tyler said his first prayer. In the middle of the day. I was changing Jackson's diaper and he kneeled on the prayer rug in his room and told me he wanted to pray. We invented the prayer rug to make night-time prayers fun during a stage when Tyler did not want to say prayers. We pick an animal and get to kneel on that square. He sometimes likes to copy us line, by line, but hasn't been doing that lately, just listening.

So we kneeled in the middle of the day, right before Jackson's nap, just to pray. Here is his first prayer all by himself:
Dear Heavenly Father;
Thank you for this good day,
Thank you for Jackson's nap and Jackson's clothes.
Thank you for Tyler, right here {giggle}
Thank you for Daddy and daddy work.
Thank you for Mommy.
Jesus Christ, Amen.

Oh, my heart is happy!

Attitude Adjustment

Today started early; I woke to the kids and heard my husband mumble a little "thanks for letting me sleep in" About 10 minutes later, his phone rings off the hook with work calls and it wasn't even 7:30 yet. So much for my turn to sleep in tomorrow :)

The day seemed to go by in slow motion, yet the boys are running around in hyper-mode. I feel like it must be time to start getting ready for bed and somehow the clock says its only 4:30. I make dinner and by the time it's done, Tyler's asleep on the couch. I pretty much yell nice things to him, shake him a bit, and pinch his cheeks, and... nothing. This means he'll wake up when Jackson goes down and I wont have a break until Jeff gets home at 10pm.

I stand in the kitchen and look around; paper streamers spread around the house, a bowl of popcorn dumped out on the floor, play-doh snakes on the table, and a sink full of dishes. I swear I woke up this morning to a very clean house. Now only hours later its a disaster. I call my mom for a good ol' attitude adjustment and she reminds me:

cleaning the house while the kids are still growing

is like sweeping the walk while the snow is still snowing

Thanks Mom, I needed that. I often get overwhelmed by the constant cleaning and especially the vicious laundry cycle- I can't seem to keep up and have our dirty clothes clean or our clean clothes put away. But my good friend, Christine told me her positive view:

piles of clothes mean I have loved ones to dress,

money to buy clothes,

and the convenience of a washer and dryer.

So, I try to look at my house a little differently on days like this. We had a good day; the boys got their fair share of fresh air at the pool this morning, healthy food in their tummies, lots of kisses from Mommy and Brother, so what if my house looks like a tornado dropped a bomb on us. We are healthy and happy and have so many blessings.

Playroom and Preschool!

Our LEARNING PLAYROOM! More fun stuff in this room coming soon!

I did a trade with the fabulous JoDell of Parker*Jane Boutique, and I got these fun alphabet animal vinyl stickers. I decided to paint canvases and line them up above this wonderful...

Shelf that Becca's dad made for us! I saw the pattern on Knock off Wood and just HAD to make them. But do you know me and a hammer? Doesn't really work out. Jeff said he'd give it a stab, but his work schedule has been hectic, so, enter Becca. She's my fabulous friend who always loves my ideas and usually comes up with even better ones! Her dad made one for us and one for them at the same time.

I just love the colors. I will be staining the shelves dark brown *someday* but wish I used red in the canvases. What do you think? I also have a huge fabric map of the world that is half cool/half dorky, but it was a yard of fabric on sale at Walmart for less than $2 and had the exact colors I'm using! I'm also in the process of putting up a sheet of cork to hang the preschool colors and shapes posters for next year. I'm calling this a "learning playroom!"

For preschool last week, we did the letter Q... I'm pretty sure I did the letter Q last time too and what do you do with Q? This time, we painted with Q-tips! I love when all gets quiet and the kids are concentrating very hard!

We were supposed to host R too, but Jackson came down with a horrible fever for 2 days. I've never felt a hotter baby and he was miserable and wouldn't sleep, so we owe you all one summer day to make Recyclable Robots and Rainbow Rice!!

Tyler LOVES his preschool friends! After they all left the other day, Tyler sadly asked me, "Where mine kids go?"

Relay for Life

Here's part of our team-- I wish we got one with everyone! Dang it! The other members were manning the fundraising table or walking in the relay at this time.

Here's our Sole Sister's fundraising table

I made keyfobs and headbands! You can go to my kirstikoo blog or etsy store if you want to participate in post-relay fundraising! Go here for more info!

Kim brought a bounce house for the kiddos.

Shannon donated 10 inches of her hair to locks of love! Her idea was contagious and 2 others decided they wanted to participate too! My good friend Becca was the hair cutter/stylist and I was her assistant! :)

The lovely Cheryl announcing about our team.

I love both Shannon's and Becca's faces in this pic!!

The hair-cutters with the Chick-fil-A cow!

I wish I got more pictures of our other team mates, but there was always so much going on!

At about midnight, they turned off the lights and did the Hope Ceremony to honor those who have had cancer.

They did a silent walk with the luminary bags lit up honoring those who have fought cancer or died from cancer. I was honoring Jeff's Grandma Clark, my Grandma Lanie, a good friend Kathy, and my dear friend Toni who is a part of our Sole Sister's team, and she inspired me to be involved. We miss Gma Clark very much, and I was emotional thinking about her.

I am so happy to still have my dear Grandma Lanie, Kathy and Toni. I just felt such an overwhelming love for them and am so happy we get to continue making memories together!

This Week's Highlights- a crazy week from start to finish!

You know you've had a crazy week when it's Sunday night and you look at the calendar and it still says Monday from the previous week. Happy Birthday Katie! I've been celebrating every day :)

On Monday, our Relay for Life group tie-dyed shirts in the morning and I had a dr. appointment in the afternoon. I'm having hernia repair surgery probably in July, when my mom can come for a week or so and Jeff's parents are coming to visit and help after that! So that's exciting news. I've known I needed to have this done for awhile now, but the time hasn't been right, until now and I'm so glad I will have help from my family!

On Tuesday as I was mailing some packages at the post office, a shelf fell on my foot and instantly swelled up really bad. I thought it was broken, but luckily the bone was just bruised really badly. My good friend watched my kids all day so I could get x-rays and got all cleaned up and bandaged up. She even had delicious dinner and home-made bread ready for me when I picked them up! Thank goodness for good friends!

On Wednesday, we had our Mother-Daughter Dinner for Activity Days. It was really fun. The theme was ''put your best foot forward" (that would've been my right foot :)!!) with a lesson on manners and a little game.
On Thursday, I could hardly move, so any chance I had, I rested on the couch. Tyler was my little messenger boy and we even developed a game I could play while laying down!! We tried to shoot the fan or the tv and we were both cracking up laughing (I had a little kick from the pain killers, I'm sure). He even ran and got my camera and took pictures of me being a bum!

On Friday, we had Relay for Life! It was so wonderful to be a part of and I was there in Memory of Grandma Clark and in Honor of my Grandma Lanie and a couple other good friends who fought cancer! Tyler helped me decorate the luminaria and it was really special to see it as I walked by. It was a great experience and I'm sure I'll do it again! (I'll do a whole post on Relay for Life)

On Saturday, I was exhausted all day and started feeling sick so I once again, was a bum, and jumped in bed anytime Jackson was napping or the boys were happy. At about 2 in the afternoon I realized we were out of diapers and milk so I better get my butt to the store. I decided on Target and had lunch while we were there. Can I say, I just love eating at Target? I can feed my boys and myself for $6.50 which includes chicken nuggets, apple slices, popcorn, a pretzel, drinks and even curly straws. What could be better than that?
On the way home from Target, my car said it was 94 degrees and I decided we needed a dip in the pool. So we headed over and had a delightful time. Jeff even got to meet us over there when he got home from work!! No pictures there, though I do have a quick video clip from my phone!

I hope you don't mind my detailed description of each day, my way to record and remember.

Pool Video

So, I couldn't get my video to add in the last post, here it is:



again, please excuse my loud talking, I don't seem to have a volume button, but I'm hoping to get a flip for my b-day (hint, hint, hee, hee...) so hopefully I'll perfect the video taking soon :)

This Week's Highlights

What a fun and crazy week! Mother's Day, 1st dentist visit ever, spider rings, playroom fun, new creations, dress up, silly bath-time and lots and lots of cutie-pies!

I heart Thursday!

Reasons why I loved today:

Tyler had preschool from 9:30-11:30

I cleaned like a mad-woman while he was gone and actually accomplished a lot

He came home in a great mood

He drew me a picture of a "dinosaur monster"

Jackson took a nap. I got even more done.

I didn't have a car until after 1:00 and so I had to stay home. Hence the accomplishing a lot part

My v.t. companion and I do dinner for a friend on Thursdays. This time I was on dessert. I made Angel's Food cupcakes with frosting and strawberries. They were delish!

I needed to pick up a few things from Walmart to finish decorating the playroom (pictures coming soon!) and Jeff wasn't going to be home for a couple hours still, so we took a quick trip over there

I was dreading it on the way there and then remembered there's a McDonalds inside

so I used it as a bribe

the entire shopping trip... "Tyler, come back or we don't get chicken nuggets"..."put that back if you want a white ice cream cone"...yes I'm that kind of mom :) it really worked!

We ate dinner inside a Walmart. Awesome.

Tyler shared his ice cream with Baby Bird without even being asked to.

I drove home smiling (listening to Jack suck on his finger and hum) and thinking I love my life!
Plus, it's Thursday. That means Grey's Anatomy/ Private Practice, The Office and 30 Rock.
Tomorrow is Friday.
And it's the Fathers & Sons camping trip for church.
I'm having a girl party. If you want to do Relay for Life, come over! While the boys camp, we are tie-dying team shirts. What is better than purple and turquoise tie-dye?!

Dear Mom & Dad,

It's always hard to get back into normal life after you leave...

But luckily you left so many special things that remind of us you every day.

The boys love helping me water the plants.

 

Jackson loves his purse  my soap on a rope ducky and says "Quack, quack" while he carries it around the house.

And Tyler shoots us all day long. So that's nice. Thanks for getting him the biggest longest coolest gun we've ever seen!

 

And we finally have mastered blowing kisses! We love you and miss you!