Enjoying the Festivities...

Saturday morning we woke up early and got ourselves ready to go have some Easter fun.

The Washington City Easter Egg Hunt.

We arrived just in time for the candy hoarding to begin.

10 am sharp!

They had different areas for the different age groups. 

0-2, 3-4, 5-6 and so on.

Each boy was in a different group.

While waiting for Grandpa to park the car & come find us, 

I was holding Crew at Landens age group. 

Just as the whistle blew for the egg hunt to begin Crew wanted out of my arms and had thrown himself into a complete body spasm.

Grandpa arrived just in time and grabbed Crew from my arms to get him over to his age group.

With him gone I can now focus on Landen and Grandma Nette was with Cody.

All the kids are running out into the square grabbing candy faster then I can blink.

I see Landen still standing on the other side of the starting line crying.

What? Why is he crying?

My boy who thrives on candy? How could this be?

I kneel down to talk to him and find out why in the heck he is not out there getting ME some candy! 

Between sobs he tells me that Crew kicked him in the eye. 

Poor guy.  :(

So I pull him out into the middle of the square and while he stands there crying I am down on the ground getting all his candy for him. 

All the stuff I like, of course!

Then before we knew it, the entire event was over!

We went and found Cody, who was the last one still out in the square wandering around searching for any possible pieces of candy that may have been overlooked!  

Grandpa and Crew joined up with us too. Crew I guess froze when it was time to get candy.

Dan was telling me that there were so many babies & parents

that it was standing room only in the square. 

All the chaos scared Crew.

He did manage to walk away with 2 pieces of candy! :)

And he was happy.

The End.

Spring Break...St. George Style

This trip could not get here fast enough!

I was so ready to be out of the snow & cold and into the SUN!

We arrived here Friday afternoon. 

The drive down was good.

Not great. But good. :)

For some reason Crew does not like to be strapped down in a car seat for 4 hours.

Not that any babies do but he REALLY does not like this. 

He was ready for battle when we had to put him back in the seat after a pit-stop.

Cody was asking if we were almost there before we even hit Spanish Fork.

Landen, well Landen I think woke up as Oscar the Grouch. Sheesh! Was he on one!

So, like I said the drive was good! lol

My Mom had recently moved to a new house. 

The boys had been so sad about this. 

We all had so many special memories at her last house.

But as soon as we pulled into the new neighborhood then into the new drive way and then...

they saw the new house.

I don't think they have thought of the old one since. :) 

I don't know if I will be able to get them out of here when it's time to go!

Here are some fun pictures of the boys and Grandma Nette's new house.

The Boys slept in the Theater room.
This is their favorite room in the house.

Fat Lip...

Fat lip is an understatement! 

This is the biggest, fattest lip I have ever seen!

Maybe I should check in with the Guinness Book of World Records?

My poor sweet Cody! 

So, it was a typical Sunday afternoon.

Nice, warm, sunny day.

Matt playing video games in the basement.

The boys playing Legos.

Me, wanting to see them all doing something

Together!

I suggest a bike ride.

Cody didn't want to go.

He wanted to stay and build Legos with Dad.

I pushed it.

It was nice out. 

The bikes had not been ridden all winter.

It was something Matt could do with all 3 boys.

Finally, they are convinced.

I can now enjoy a few minutes of peace.

With Cody on his own bike,

Matt on his bike pulling the bike trailer with Landen & Crew.

They leave.

I am happy.

About 30 minutes later I get a phone call.

It's Matt.

He tells me I need to come pick up Cody & his bike.

He wrecked and does not feel like riding his bike home.

That was it.

No more, no less.

I jump in the Tahoe. 

Head over to the park.

Pull up to find Cody sitting on the curb.

Bloody, dirty, hurt and crying.

I am shocked by what I see.

Besides all the obvious, his lip was so badly injured.

Matt had forgotten to mention any of this to me!

I was not prepared to see my little boy hurt like this.

I of course am freaking out.

Who wouldn't!

Matt interrupts me to say he told Cody it was not that bad.

Oh, well... Still would have been nice to warn me.

Sheesh!

So I told Matt,"if you think this is not that bad then you get clean him all up!"

If it was up to me, I think we would have been headed to the insta-care.

I drove Cody home and apologized profusely.

This was all my fault.

I made them go!

I felt so bad for Cody.

I carried him into the house and put him in my bed.

I kept him as comfortable as I could until Matt arrived.

Then turned Cody over to him.

There was so much dirt packed up into his front teeth and gums.

Blood and dirt on his face.

Cuts and bruising.

And the swelling! Oh, the swelling!

It was shocking to me to see this.

But Cody, who is such a strong boy, did not let this slow him down one bit.

Within the hour of getting him home and cleaning him up, we were supposed to leave.
We had our annual Easter Dinner & Egg Hunt at my Aunt Peggy's home.
We gave him the option to stay home or go.
He, of course, wanted to go.
He went and made an amazing recovery.
Not once that night did he complain about his lip.
He did tell me he would stay out of all the pictures.
That broke my heart!
That he even had that thought still makes me feel bad.

These photos don't even show how bad it really was but gives you an idea.

Date With Mom...

This past Saturday I took Cody out on Date!

My Dad always took me on Father/Daughter dates and they meant the world to me. 

They still do.

I want to make sure that Matt & I take the time to do this with our boys.

The one-on-one time we have together is so different from the every day hustle & bustle.

A few weeks back, one of the little boys in my primary class told me about an activity he did with his family. The minute he started telling me what it was, I instantly knew I had to take Cody there. The place is, Color Me Mine. 

It has been around forever but I never thought about actually going there!

As you all know Cody is my artist/engineer/scientist. 

I knew he would love all aspects of this place. 

And He did. 

It was so much fun to go and spend this quiet time alone with him.

We were there for a few hours and we each painted a different ceramic piece.

Cody picked out a Dog! What else! Right??? lol

We have a long running doggy theme going in our family. 

Thanks Grandma Elly, we Love you! :)

I picked out a piggy bank to make for Crew. 

The girl who runs this location was amazing. She made the whole experience even sweeter. 

I love happy people who truly enjoy their job and want you to feel the same. 

It remined me of the good ol' days back at the scrapbook store.

I loved that job and miss it daily!

We finished painting our pieces and had to leave them there so they could be fired.

Cody was not real excited with the thought of leaving empty handed.

Cody said to me, "will you ask her if there is something we can do about this?"

Oh, Cody! How your little mind works. 

I had Courtney (the girl who runs the place) explain the process.

So we go back on Thursday to pick up our masterpieces.

We both can't wait!

Our date didn't end here but the rest was just running around to other stores,

stopping in at places I normally would not take 3 kids to. 

This was so much fun for me as much as it was for Cody. 

I can't wait to do this again.

Spring Fever...

The other day I came down with a raging case of Spring Fever!

It was about 42 degrees for the high but it felt like 60.

All the kids were out playing. Coats tossed aside. Even shoes for some of the really brave ones! I was out in back with the kids & the neighbors kids were over. Crew thought he had died & gone to heaven. This poor boy cries every time the door opens and he is held back like a yapping puppy trying to get out! 

As I stood out there I could feel the sun on my arms and face. All the snow was melted. I could see the brown dead grass, the decayed brown leaves piled up in corners, dirt and sand building up in the gutters-oh wait, that one was from the boys who had just taken a snow shovel and shoveled dirt out of the garden into the nearby gutter! SERIOUSLY!!! Already?????

Then it began...I of course was instantly upset by this. They know better, don't they? Here it is, only the middle of February and we already have all the boys in the mud-at my house! Always MY house! I thought I had solved this problem by laying down all my beautiful brick and covering up all the mud I despised SO much. I thought leaving a small area for gardening would be okay, that I could keep control over this little bit of earth. My boys once again have proved me wrong. Very wrong. Why do I always underestimate them? :) 

After demanding that they clean up the mess, I started to get the itch. That spring cleaning itch. That must start working on the yard itch. I couldn't ignore it anymore. I scratched it! I collected all those dead leaves, swept the driveway, picked up garbage & dog poop that mysteriously ends up in our yard. I was ready to dawn my gardening gloves and get down & dirty! 

At about the same time the sun started to set, the temp. started to drop, the boys were coughing their lungs out, Crew was off into the neighbors garage, and it was dinnertime. 

I knew my glimpse of Spring was over. We cleaned up and headed in for the night. 

All could think about were the flowers I wanted to plant, the bulbs that still needed to be planted, the snap dragons, all my beautiful roses. I love so much to be out in my yard working. Sun up to sundown you can usually find me out there. And I so miss it!  That was when I knew I had been hit with SPRING FEVER!!!!

Landen turns the big 4....

Landen's Birthday was January 28th. I am little late posting this but our family has been dealing with a lot the past few days. So, on Landen's actual Birthday he came down with the flu or something. Had a fever & throwing up. Just felt yuck. So we postponed any celebrating until the following day. I was also taking him into the doctor the next morning for his 4 yr. check up. During this check up we found out he has strep & was dehydrated. And the worst part-he had to get a few immunizations. He was very scared of this part & started crying a bit. Ever since they tried to take blood at the office one time & failed miserably-he has had this fear of shots & needles. He felt tired & sick the rest of the day but that afternoon after Cody got home from school "they" decided "they" were ready for cake & presents. Cody seemed to think this was his Birthday as much as it was Landen's. I felt really bad that Matt was not there but who knows when he will ever be home. I am glad we didn't wait that night since it was 9:30 before he made it home. I made Landen a Transformers cake. It was nothing great but it was cake & that is all Landen cared about! lol If any of you know Landen then you know what I am talking about! Then we opened presents. Matt & I had gave him Lego's. G&G Southwick gave him books & money, G&G Taysom gave him a remote control car, G&G Simcox gave him a giant construction floor puzzle. The other part of his Birthday was to go bowling & have lunch as a family on Saturday. We started at none other then JCW's. He seemed pretty good the whole time. Then by the time we left you could see he was not feeling well, didn't get to far before he barfed in the car! Well, this little guy was still too sick for celebrating! So bowling next weekend!!!! This Birthday just doesn't end! Can anything get better than that! I submit that it cannot!