July 4th is a homerun!

Happy 4th of July!

For the Fourth of July we went to a Whitecaps Baseball Game. I couldn't think of anything more all-American then baseball, stadium food, and fireworks to cap off a winning night. The boys had a blast, and I got some good reading time in between the innings (oh, all right....let's be honest here....reading time happened during the innings,too!)

Kevin officially wins the Husband of the Year award since Kevin made me run back into the house and bring along my latest Jodi Picoult read. He knows me well enough that after 3 or 4 innings I'm ready for a change of scenery. This was the perfect distraction for me.

Entertainment was a riot. These puffed-up, blown-up mascots, complete with wiggling tails kept coming out to dance, fight, wiggle, and groove. They changed costumes quite a few times and go the whole crowd on their feet dancing and hollering.


This is the thanks I get for purchasing baseball tickets.
I'll gladly take the credit!
Kyler was a little peeved at Jordan for only getting his mouth in the photo, but I thought little Jord did just fine.

Another Jordan photo.
I stole the camera back after this one.
I like to be behind the lens, not front and center.

A little Chicken Dance and Dinosaur Dancing is always fun at a baseball game!
Sorry to the lady behind us who kept getting memorialized in our pictures.
She'll just be an extension of my family for the moment.

A night of memories!

Great game Whitecaps.
Thanks for a great night!

On to another Note:

I'm trying to figure out why I can't seem to bring myself to plug the Canon into the computer and download pictures. It only takes seconds (literally....today I counted to 5 and voila, picture download is complete!) I tend to psych myself out with anything that has to do with electronics. If an item requires me to push more than 2 buttons or if said item actually needs to be plugged into a wall in order to work, then obviously it will be too time consuming of a task for me to do. I tell myself I can't possibly find the time to sit to add another item to that long list of to-do's, but as with most things I proved myself wrong today. Here I am less than a minute later placing a check-mark next to item #1, and miracle of miracles, item #2 is about to be stamped DONE. I've officially blogged in the month of July. I'm on a roll today! DO you think this means I can now sit back, grab an icy diet coke, and relax the rest of the day! That sounds like a reward well deserved! 2 minutes of work = hours of nothing but bliss!

Happy Summer Days, all!

Time for a new Van

I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new van. Kevin will tell you I've been wanting one for quite some time, but truth be told I liked my other van just fine. What I haven't liked are the ever mounting repair bills! First the whole air bag system went down and so we replaced that, a couple weeks later the sliding door motor took a nose dive and stopped working. I'll just say I was shocked at how much a new motor was going to cost! While fixing that the mechanics discovered a leaking water pump which needed to be replaced, and to top it all off the transmission is starting to slip. When I go to put the car in reverse there's a loud popping noise and the car stays stuck for a few seconds before starting to move. Of course there were all the normal items too like replacing tires, fixing brakes, and overall maitenance. It's all money, money, money that never seems to end so for the past couple of weeks I've researched all I could online, visited a few car dealerships, got numerous price quotes, and finally settled on a van. We've been test driving it all weekend and tonight we'll go finish up the paperwork. All I can say is this time I need to remember extended warranty! Hopefully I won't need to visit a car repair shop again for quite a long time!

Am I really old enough for this?

These are pictures from Kyler's 5th grade graduation ceremony.
This is Jordan and his friend Sierra.
There always seems to be some girl who wants to hang out with my Jordy.

Kyler with his second 5th grade teacher of the year, Mrs. Pedersen.
He was lucky and had wonderful teachers in both of the schools he attended this year!

Yep, it's official.
Here's the paperwork to prove it!

I'm feeling kinda old this week....most likely stemming from the fact that I now have a MIDDLE SCHOOLER!! Man, how did that creep up so fast? The pre-teens have officially made an entrance into my household! Congratulations are in order for my oldest kidlet, Kyler. He's made it through elementary school with flying colors (quite an achievement considering he attended no less than 5 schools during his elementary school career!) And what kind of mom would I be if I didn't also mention my very favorite 2nd grader, Jordan! I'm looking forward to all the fun we'll have together this summer, but believe me when I say I've already got a BIG RED circle around Tuesday, September 8th. Quieter times are sure to ensue once school is in session again.

Happy Summer Vacation to all.

I'm a blogging slacker

Lately I have been the biggest blogger slacker. I'm not sure why I can't find the motivation to spend 5 minutes on the computer and download pictures, but I know I need to make a better effort to do so. Sadly, this is as good as it gets for me in terms of journal writing. I used to write in my journal nightly, but over the past few years it's another habit that I seem to have tossed by the wayside. That's definitely not the sort of habit I should have gotten rid of so easily.

Really, when looking back at my life, I know I should try to spend more time chronicling the time I spend together with my family. This is especially true now because when I take a moment to think about it, I realize just how small the part of my brain is that's suppose to store vital memories. It's seems to shrink and shrivel more each year. So, here's a few of the happy memories that we created on our last trip to Utah. I've got to jot them down now before all my new memories try and overtake my old memories. Memories that are definitely worth holding on to for years and years to come. Besides, we'll be heading back to Utah in July and it would look pretty bad if I had to post both our family vacations side-by-side in one posting. Talk about a slacker! Who knows, maybe by July I'll get my blogging bug back and finally post more than once a month.

Kyler and Hannah gigging for dinosaur bones at Thanksgiving Point

Of course Caleb had to get in on the action. Dinosaurs are at the top of his "I'm Obsessed With" list!

What fun is a dino museum if you don't actually ride at least one?

Gramma and Grampa sure know how to create fun times for my boys.

Jordan and his cousin Dave. You get these two together and you find out just how "fun" boys can be!

Touching the Stingrays at the aquarium. This would be #2 on Caleb's "I'm Obsessed With" list!

The boys and I at Temple Square. It was a beautiful day when we went.

Caleb, Hannah, Dave, Jordan, Kelcee, Kyler

Two of THE BEST parents around!!

A couple more pretty great parents. Kevin's dad and Debbie were able to have lunch with us when we stopped in Logan for the afternoon. Cousin Taylor even made it out with them and spent the afternoon with us.

A Very Happy Mother's Day

Kyler complained to me a little bit this past week that I haven't posted enough pictures of him lately. So today, in honor of Mother's Day, I will be posting pictures of him. Of course Jordan and Caleb's can't help but be in a few of those photos , but I don't think my eldest will mind too much!

Happy Mother's Day!

Kyler's day started off around 5 a.m. (I'm pretty sure the birds weren't even awake yet!) This of course meant that my day started soon afterwards. That's the time when Kyler decided his mom would need a glorious start to her day with breakfast in bed! Good thinking buddy.... Next year though, could breakfast service wait until at least 6:30. If it does, you may find you don't fall asleep in the middle of church and drool on your dad!

Of course, this breakfast wouldn't be complete without my very own maitre-d.
I assume Kyler must think all Frenchman have mustache's which is why my 11 year old now sports one made out of black construction paper and a lot of tape. I must admit, until he mentioned he was wearing a mustache, I hadn't even noticed. Of course that may be due to the fact that it was still dark outside, and my eyes still had plenty of sleep left in them. Once I saw it though, I couldn't stop laughing. It was the best wake-up EVER!!

Kyler also made himself this apron with a paper pocket where he kept a $7.50 bill for my breakfast. Luckily for me he also had a free Mother's Day Breakfast Coupon which I was able to redeem. Phew, I would have had to pay him in plenty of pennies if that coupon didn't surface.

After all his hard work, he kicked back and relaxed at the foot of my bed and watched me eat everything. The rest of the family was still fast asleep.

After church the boys came home and performed a Mother's Day song they wrote for me titled "We Wish You a Happy Mother's Day!" sung to the tune of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"
I have a bunch of up and coming performers at my house.

Here's a small assortment of the handmade cards they made for me today. I am such a lucky mom.

Thanks boys for all the funny, happy, and loving memories you helped create today.
You're the best.
I love you!
XOXO