Monday, August 25, 2008

It's a...

...boy! I had my official ultrasound today and I am so excited! Joseph and Josh will have a little buddy to play with and get into trouble with. I can only imagine how my grocery bill will go up when they are teenagers. 13, 15, and 17. That will be dangerous. I will have a missionary out for 6 years. Thats a long time.

More good news for me? They moved my due date up a week! Every day counts in the end so I am excited about this! The kids and I went to the mall and Joseph picked out these cute shoes.
He called them cowboy shoes. As Ryan said we don't NEED anything but it is still fun to buy a few cute things. I will post ultrasound pics when I learn how to use my scanner.

Right now I like the names Jacob and Adam. Not sure on a middle name though.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

I am the mother of a double digiter!

Is that even a word, digiter? (Jared touched up this picture! I was impressed. He asked me how to do what he wanted and I told him but he did it. He wants to know all their is to know about photoshop)Jared is now 10. He has seemed 10 to me for some time because he is so responsible. It was his year to have a big party. Being a boy it was a simple party and he was thrilled. I took him, his uncle Tim, and Cousin Luke to Boomers for free play. We went there because Jared thought Laser tag would be cool and this was the only place around that does it. It turned out to be kinda lame. It was inside this blowup thing with out good air ventilation and the boys said it was way to hot. But they loved minature golfing and went twice.It was fun to watch th boys be non competitive with each other. They wanted to do their best but they were cheering each other on the whole time.
They also went on the bumper boats that spray water at each other and the race cars twice. We also stopped by the arcade that sucked their money so fast it wasn't even funny.
When I asked them what their favorite part was they said the bumper boats. Their was this old guy with his grand kids that got a kick out of squirting everyone. I think they enjoyed being able to get him. They were soaked when they got off. Good thing it was warm out. A round of miniature golf warmed them up.

Then we headed home for pizza and cake. It was gettin late and the cake didn't sound good so we saved it for the next day. Ryan and I set up the tent and started the fire in our backyard while they ate. Once we got them settled with smores they were so excited to get into the tent. Our backyard is so great for little, while they aren't really little anymore, boys. In the morning they told me how they think they heard a snake and maybe even a dog. They were so excited.

They built the bionicles I bought as party favors and played on the tramp until it was time to take Tim to Grandma's (he had piano lessons) We then hung out till lunch, sung happy birthday, and ate cake there. Jared found this cake online and asked me to make it. We spiced it up a little by adding oreo cookie dirt, chocolate covered raisin rocks, and a graham cracker road. I also put gummie worms in the middle of the cake, they were supposed to be snakes because of Indiana's fear. The kids thought that was cool. The cake tasted so good. It had a few layer because I used this cool pan my mom gave me that takes out the middle of the cake so you can put a filling in. I put frosting, cake, gummies, and crushed oreos. Yum.. I only had a little taste but yeah, it was that good.!

I think he had a great day!

Jared is such an amazing boy and I feel privileged as his mother to be a part of his life. He is so caring towards me and is always the first to give me a hug and ask how he can help if he sees something is stressful to me. He Loves so fully! He works hard at whatever it is he wants to accomplish. I remember when he wanted to read the Lord of the Rings serious last yea
r and I thought for sure it would be to hard for him. Because all his friends had seen the movie and he had not I think he wanted to see what was so interesting. He did it and understood it.

He has been playing basketball this summer and I have been amazed at how good he has gotten in such a short time simply because he wants it. He set some amazing goals this last week and I have no doubt he can achieve them. I think the world off this kid and I wish for all parents to have a son to love and be loved like Jared.

Sequoia National Park

Ryan surprised us with a trip to the Sequoia National Park. He planned the whole thing and it was so amazing. I thought it was so wonderful of him to do this as planning trips can sometimes be stressful. It was so relaxing because I didn't have any expectations of what the trip should be. We drove up Thursday and got there about dinner time. We ate and then laid around in the hotel. Then went up to the park on Friday and had a great time just being together. They have a fun hands on museum the kids really loved being able to touch really animal skin and see the findings of the park. They even had a place to put on a puppet show.

We then walked around the park and found Great Sherman, one of the oldest and largest trees. Once we all felt sufficiently tired we headed down the windy road and found a cute little candy shop/ice cream parlor. We had been eating healthy snacks all day so I figured this would be a fun little stop. Some of us were still suffering from car sicknesses. The roads were really windy. Jared could not even go in the store with out feeling sick. Once we went into the ice cream parlor a little kitten followed us. Joshua loved it and tried to grab it by pulling it's tail. I stopped him and then he tried to pick it up again. The cat didn't seem to mind. But boy oh boy did the owner get annoyed. She picked that cat up and assured it out. After the kids were done with their ice cream we realized we don't remember her washing her hands???? Kinda a gross idea.

We enjoyed a nice mellow dinner at chilli's and played fun games while we waited. Then we went straight to bed. Well we tried. Joshua had no desire to go to bed. I laid with him for sometime until around 10:30 he finally fell asleep. It was kinda nice to get to watch the opening games of the Olympics since we don't have cable.

We woke up the next day and checked out the town. We went to the outlet stores. The local radio was doing their version of are you smarter then a 5th grader. My kids entered their names and wanted so much to win. They didn't but they did enjoy watching. We then ate lunch and took naps. When we went out again we went to Down town. It was supposed to be this cool tourist spot. It was so hot we didn't really enjoy it like I thought we would. It did have amazing architecture but I forgot my camera in the hotel room. So sad for me. We then went to dinner and then Ryan took the kids swimming. The next morning we went to church there and headed home.

All in all it was just nice to have one last get away before focusing once again on school and all the preparations required (I have been working all week to get the whole year in order so that when baby is born I am really prepared and home school won't be stressful).

Thank you honey for knowing exactly what I needed! Your the best!

And here are a ton of pictures in no real order.



Quick explanation of this picture. Ever since Field of Dreams came out I have wanted to run through corn fields. Since I didn't think this was appropriate I simply took a picture. Before I die though, I will run free in the fields!

This man is such a hottie!




This look cracks me up.








This was the length of the near by tree laid out on the ground. The kids enjoyed pretending to climb the tree.

Pioneer day picnic July 24th

Our church celebrated Pioneer day at Dixon Lake. The week before I tried to take the kids there to play. I got sick right after we got there so I don't think it was as fun as it could have been.I thought it a good idea to try and get a all kid picture but...


...Joshua had other plans


Bad picture but the only one I took at the picnic.The kids had a great time at the picnic. The played old fashioned games. Ate homemade ice cream and cobbler. But most off all they just played with their friends.

Friday, August 15, 2008

I have so much to catch up on...

...but for now some pictures of my newest nephew.