i'm a loser-i know

i read my own blog. can't help it-i'm a dork. i check nearly every day to see if someone has left me a comment. i guess i am not that widely read because there never are any except from my mom (thanks mom!!!). so i log in to read my own posts. you'd think i had extra time or something, but i don't. just mindless entertainment by myself. glad i at least entertain me!! not like you care because you aren't reading this-unless of course you are my mom which if that be the case you are ready to hit the 0 comments button right about now! love you mom-will post again soon!!!

caleb's baptism day

what a special day this little guy had. thanks to so many family members who made many,many sacrifices to make this a very special day for our family. in arizona they bulk-baptize but i'm not really ready to claim az so luckily our bishop made an exception for us. it was a really special day-one we hope he will never forget. what a great day it was. here are some momentos...
here's my little family-such a special day for a mom...

2 of my favorite boys

caleb all in white-doesn't he look small?!?

my boys

my sweet little family

caleb and his grandmas

boys grandma and grandpa

the boys ready to go

caleb here's another silly note for you....
i am so proud of you for choosing to be baptized. i love the way you look up to the missionaries. i love how you listened to the things they taught you about being baptized. they carry the spirit with them and you could always recognize it. you are a special kid with lots of abilities to do good. i hope more than anything that you will grow to recognize the promptings of the spirit and follow what the lord would have you do. He will never lead you astray and you will always be comforted by Him. i wish you could understand how proud i am of you and how much i want for you to always remember this day as a very special time in your life.
all my love,
your sappy mom...

we have an 8 year old!!!

never thought this one would grow this fast! i remember the day he was born like it was yesterday.....and since it seems garet's birthday is just around the corner i figured i better get on with this post!!!

what a great birthday this guy had. this year it fell on a sunday and we had planned his baptism for monday (pics of that event to post later) so we had lots of family come to help out. it was quite the event. we did a friend birthday party on sat. family party on sunday and then baptism followed by a dinner party on monday. quite the weekend, especially since jeremy didn't get home from his campout until 1/2 hour before sat. party time...what a whirlwind!!!

so with this disclaimer i admit i did not plan any games or fun activities for the parties. luckily my parents bailed me out and brought a real pinata. add a pool to swim in on the hottest day to date, and we called the party activity department good.

of course garet and ethan had to check out the bull...

and caleb had to pose by it

then they all had to wait in line to hit it

and collect the loot from it

and wear the bull head

you see...??? who needs planned forms of entertainment? lets eat cake!!! a nicely formed 8 cake decorated by granny herself...

a face in the cake shot, with no follow up if you can believe that(the shadows cursed me that day)

and the friends who helped us celebrate

caleb asked for 2 presents this year, a razor spark scooter and heelies. well-being the bad mom i am i didn't get him either...judge not-hear me out!! granny fulfilled the spark scooter request and i opted for a bit more reasonable request. heelies aren't allowed in school anyways, and look at that smile!!
c
he has yet to figure them out but that is beside the point, once it cools down and he won't receive 2nd degree burns on his hands from catching himself on the asphalt when he falls we are all over the training.

wow-caleb can you really be 8?!?!? you are getting so big and learning so much, i love to see your smart little mind work. you have brought so many new feelings into my life. you are the 1st heart i have walking outside of my body!! you may never know how much i love you and how proud i am to be your mom, but until someday you can at least try to understand, you will just have to trust me that i love you more than you could even think of. i want what is best for you and i want you to be able to show the world what an awesome kid you are. may you always try to continue to make good choices and be able to positively impact this world and be a force of righteousness in all you do.
love eternally:
your mother

boys boys boys

so...this never happens at my house. really-this was the first time i had ever come across a scene like this---EVER.... a toy actually being used for its intended purposes?!?! never! i had to document it-i just couldn't believe it!!!


goes to show me!!!
after i had taken these 2 pictures, the following blog was born within the next few days. aaaahhhh...one step forward 2 steps back..
strange but true--the following is much much more normal around here:

...dirty clothes make it within 2 feet of the brown wicker hamper, but not quite in....

...dirty underwear gets retrieved from the top of the fridge during routine cleaning.....

...neighborhood dogs who camp out under our front tree get chased down with a toy army soldier gun.....

........the paint doesn't quite make it back to its proper place........

...there are too many options after getting out of the pool....

....far too many options....

..we sometimes get creative with wire whisks when microphones are in demand....

....we've been known to use eachother's 'softer' sides as a pillow.....


ever wonder how these things happen?
i don't anymore...
a day in the life for the mom of 3 boys!
understand it or not-i just gotta love it!!!!
hope you enjoyed it as well...don't worry-surely there will be more to come..

the great outdoors

be prepared, i warn.... this is probably gonna be a long post-but we took lots of pictures, so it may be okay!!! we made a last minute decisions over memorial day to escape the hot weather and find some fun camping (have i mentioned its been hot lately?). we really love to go and do this, but haven't been able to much lately. i think it has something to do with the fact that every time jeremy has a scouting adventure he ends up sleeping outside, but that's just what i think. we love to be outdoors, and the kids had been wanting to go fishing, so away we went!!! after finding most every campsite full, a nice ranger helped us find one of the last remaining tent sites in town.

poor jeremy, such a good sport, this just happened to be the weekend before he left for 6 days of scout camp...haha! and the fact that we may have forgotten why its not such a good idea to take a before 2 year old camping.... ummm-dirt, sharp rocks, dirt, dangerous water hazards, non-amenities, shall i go on?!!
our campsite (home) for a few days

ethan helping set up

caleb helping with the set up

our plans were mostly to just relax and enjoy ourselves. we ended up spending an entire day fishing. notice i say fishing and not catching. i am not a fan of fishing. love catching, but fishing---snore! especially if you are trying to keep kids entertained and there is just no biting going on. really-how many times can you re-cast...(do you understand yet where caleb gets his inpatience-hahha!)
ethan and garet at the lake waiting to have some fun!!

jeremy fixing another line, baiting another hook-who knows-poor guy didn't get to fish much himself, just had to do all the dirty work.

caleb waiting for a bite (and cursing our names for not letting him chuck rocks at the other people fishing)

garet chucking rocks (he couldn't quite throw that far)

so mommy did it. must have been that cool pink pole, but the only fish of the day came off my line not 30 minutes after being there. had i known it would be the only (or that there was really a fish on there) i would have let caleb reel it in-such a bad mom. here is garet's first real fish encounter. i was surprised he didn't freak out or anything, actually quite enjoyed watching it swim around in the water.

poor ethan waiting for a bite! at least his attention span isn't that long and he didn't get too bored, so many rocks/sticks to throw, so little time

garet gave up on the long walk in the pack. daddy's neck is apparently very comfortable..

here's ethan so proud of the fish and showing it to everyone..seemed to be the biggest fish in the lake that day.

garet and ethan with their dinner-yum!

campfire boys

the cooked fish in all its glory, i wasn't exercising much faith because i didn't pack any spices so there wasn't much flavor to help us out, but it was fresh, so it wasn't too bad, and yes-i made everyone take a bite-so mean...

caleb, the non-fish eaater-at least i let him plug his nose...

ethan usually loves fish, but since brother went first and declared it disgusting he wouldn't eat more than one bite!

so-mommy and garet finished it off. garet loved it-kept asking for 'more meat!!'

this is the best thing about camping. they fall hard... caleb put garet to sleep both nights. it was so cute. the 1st night caleb was out within 2 minutes and garet roamed the tent, but the 2nd night he cuddled right in and zonked out.

our time was finally up and we had to pack it in. we promised the boys a 'bear hunt' so we needed to get started early. the boys were good to entertain themselves while we packed up. that's really the worse you know. garet dug in the fire pit-we didn't care by this point.

caleb loved this cheap plastic slingshot, it made all the difference in entertaining him!

dad of course had to show him how it was done and garet displays his 'cool dudes' (this is how he refers to all sunglasses)

garet absconds with the slingshot and hides it for future use

and our new favorite outdoor game. started out as throw the pinecones at the trees

after they mastered that we moved on to see who can get the pine cones to stick back in the tree. really-ingenuius of me don't you think? ethan was pretty good too!!! there weren't too many bears on our 'hunt' so mom had to come up with another entertaining avenue.
\
alls well that ends well right? especially if you get to experience the dirt road choir on your way home

ah all the fun of the outdoors, hope you enjoyed..