Times Like These!

Take a minute ...READ THIS

2011-09-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

So I was checking out one of my besties blogs she posted about this link yesterday about an article she had run across. I cannot even tell you how awesome this is...GO here and READ THIS ...I promise it is worth your time.. this girl can seriously write.

(apparently my link button isnt working so you will have to copy and paste it to read..but trust me..it is worth the extra two seconds that will take.

http://bravegirlsclub.com/archives/2151

There is a story behind EVERYTHING....It is so sad to me that we are more empathetic and understanding to others when we know the story behind their actions, attitude, etc...

We must see past what it seems.

I know with me personally, this hit me particulary hard right now.

I need to get things put back into perpective of what I will do more of...

I hope we all can be better at seeing the signs before needing to be humbled by having to hear the story.

Thank you "miguel" for posting this:) I am missing my ptown besties. just sayin.

happy mothers Day?

2011-09-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

It is official. Both my boys are in school. Happy Mothers Day to Me? Except..I am still needing to get used to this me time. It is so unreal to me to think that I no longer have any little babies at home. I feel a little lost to tell you the truth.(anyone have a baby i can borrow?) Except for I feel like all I do with my time now, is go back and forth to and from the bus stop most of the day.

Con Man takes off for the bus at 7:25 every morning.

Gavin takes off for the bus at 8:45.

Gavin comes home at 12:25

Conner comes home at 2:25.

Wow ..that kinda felt like I was writing a DR. Seuss book!

So of course I gotta get in on the record the cutest Kindergartner EVER....but.. like I have mentioned before ....I am a little biast..

The Gavinator on his first day of school!

Yes.. that is usually how the first pic goes when I take this ones picture...it is either that...or sometimes he pretends to be "gansta"

Speaking of "gansta" ...he loves to wear this "grill"(I hope u can even see the "grill" due to the small pic.

I mean..seriously. I just hope he doesn't turn into this "gansta" grandpa when he is old...aren't the shorts the COOLEST! Definitely my new FAV! Wonder if I could them them in a size 5 for little G?

I just love this handsome little man. I am a little saddened that his adorable cheeks are slowly disappearing as he turns into a little boy though.

Here he is checking out what it means to line up at his bus stop with all the big kids. for the record..he didn't even miss me. nor was he scared. he in fact refused to let me drive him to school on the first day. And I am pretty sure I was the only kinder mom who walked away before the bus even drove off.. amazingly enough I didn't cry.

This is one of Con Man's best buds here in good ol happy valley. It melted my heart to see how he took the big brother roll and makes sure every morning that gavin is ok on the bus. He also walks him to his class. how cute is that. Can you see the Smile on my little boys face...A d o r a b l e.

So there you have it. An official happy mothers day to me of sorts. Except I miss them already............................................................................................... even when the little one leaves behind his special vanilla milk I bought him a week ago in the car without me knowing ....it ended up EXPLODING all over my car... and well apparently due to the heat these things can EXPODE like a BOMB...I love when i dont know about these "special" things that are left behind in the car. I got to spend over 5 hours cleaning up milk bomb "explosion" EVERYWHERE. You can imagine due to the heat and a week long of fermenting how amazingly awesome my car must smell... lets just say it is a good thing this little kindergartner is cute. And I sure hope the car can start to smell better... it is never good to start out your day gagging every time you have to drive somewhere.

Special people of Utah

2011-08-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

What happens in Utah (I'm not going to mention which city, but it is very nearish to utah lake) when you have garage sales. Well..we all know the saying "if you build it they will come" well, thanks to my neighbor..she built it and I decided to last minute be apart of it...and I TELL it was hysterical.

Check out the few special guests that hit up the garage sale...

Can someone please tell me if she is wearing shorts..I mean, I am all about garage sales but I know, me personally, I am pretty sure I would like the world to see I truly did have shorts on ..I would hate to leave people to "wonder" and let their imaginations run wild. Oh Dear.It felt a little uncomfortable and I was honestly a little sad for this poor lady. She was nice enough and bought all sorts of trinkets and treasures..I just for a little bit didn't know if I dare look or not.
..(thank goodness..bless her soul..she was)They were just,I would say,a tad too short) I am all about over sized T-Shirts....I would just prefer a little longer shorts.

Then we get this DUDE...I mean...really..SERIOUSLY????......It was as if Crocodile Dundee was out on the loose..except this version was really interesting...
old...sweaty..hairy..smelly..Did I mention you could see his bumm crack (yes, mommy I
used bumm instead of butt..but i much prefer to say butt).. I am pretty sure I mentioned hairy. The pics just do not do it justice. This guy sure did make for some good laughs. I am pretty sure everyone stopped in their tracks when he arrived...I much prefer the real crocodile Dundee.His belt buckle was made out of probably someones bones..but no really ..it was some sort of bone.... I am not even going to mention that when he decided to buy something I was the lucky one to receive his money...a one dollar bill. NOT in a wallet like most people do..but it was tucked deep deep down towards the nether regions...this one dollar bill that he pulled deep down out of his front pocket of his jeans, was wet..sick..oh so so sooo sick.. It was a super hot day that day..lets just say I about barfed when he handed me the dollar and it was all wet...ewwww..sick..it was so gross. I had to wash my hands about a million times. It still sickens me to think of how far down the dollar bill was tucked...ok i am sick to my stomach again.We also hid kids inside!(ok not really..the kids really were already inside..)

Zoom in on the picture at your own risk.

Speaking of hiding kids inside..

This gentlemen was at a children's event that was put on by the city.... ummm...did I
mention it was a children's event. It was a bird/reptile show. FOR CHILDREN..this dude gets spotted in the crowd..now look closely at this pic..does it look like he is the father of all the children surrounding him? ummm...I think not..I am pretty sure he is also not an uncle or close relative either..it looks a little bit creepy if you ask me..but i am just sayin...

look closely

......................................................................now you can see that i tried to zoom in on the pics a little bit.....

Look up at the above picture again...Do you notice the little girl off to the left who looks like she is crying..

did you notice the little girl looking away from him probably trying to spot her mom to come and save her. He was, by the way not with any of the girls..but i am still totally creeped out by his reasoning for being a children's show..sitting by all those little girls..I am not so sure if he was their to check out the reptiles "prey" or "prey" on all the children at the show...not cool.

The grateful dead Tye die shirt wasn't working for me..or for him for that matter. I did however keep a very close eye on all the kids around him to make sure everyone stayed safe. but seriously...

S E R I O U S L Y.
that is all I have to say.

goodbye summer

2011-08-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

This little boy started his first day of second grade today. Today officially ended our little summer hiatus.

A good friend of mine had said a few weeks ago it would feel like mothers day when both kids got into school:)I guess for me i have to wait another week..but for all of you others mommies who had their kids go back to school today..happy mothers day!

It will be nice to have the kiddos get back on a schedule again..but this morning was not exactly the way i had thought the morning would go. It left my youngest throwing a massive meltdown after we got back from taking his older brother to the bus stop. In fact, it took me over two hours to get the littest calm enough to even talk to me this morning. And it broke my heart. He was just sad that his best friend left him all day for school.(he doesnt start until next week.)So it took me getting pretty creative to get him out of his sad little mood. How come it works so much better on everyone elses kids..but my own..woozers...it feels like it takes me forever to cheer them up again.

The oldest made it home. He had a good day. We talked about his class. His teacher, his school friends that he got to see..you know, all those fun things that us mommies want to hear about the minute they walk in the door.He had said he had a good day.

About an hour later.. he decided he wanted me to take him to buy him some pokemon cards(this is about a daily request...no matter how many cards he already owns.) I told him I wouldnt(I know..I know.how dare I say no), so he also is having a tantrum like you would not think an 8 year old could produce. Good times Good times. Now I completely understand what my mom went through when i was little and threw my temper tantrums. hahahahaha..i guess what goes around does actually come around. I will be glad when we get used to our new schedule, then we all can be able to get through the day without such massive meltdowns:)

At least the little one is not sad anymore. You kow when you get to the point where you feel like you either laugh or cry..well i had that this afternoon so i went with laughing. I am sure the crying with come later. I have been attempting to straighten the house today. The littlest has been really excited to use scissors and pratice cutting paper today, so i have been finding small pieces of paper all over the place..And i mean ALL OVER THE PLACE. He has been busy working hard on his masterpieces so i gotta just roll with it and laugh. The oldest during his temper tantrum decided to throw everything that he could get his hand onto. So now that he has calmed down, he is learning the hard way about having to clean up what he destroyed.

is it bedtime yet? At least is it bedtime for mommy yet?

Here is to one more week before the little one starts kindergarten.

Here is to more massive meltdowns..

but..here is to being able to snuggle them after they have calmed down and realize that their momma still loves them dearly. we will make it through. one minute at a time:)

BREATHE IN and BREATHE OUT.

2011-08-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

Life has an interesting way of twists and turns along our path of life. I know for me this has come to light more times than I would have thought possible in my 30 years of age.(I cannot believe I.. A. admitted my age..and B: just threw my age out for a lovely reminder )

I have been through so much these last few years that I cannot imagine how I agreed to sign myself up for this.. But I Did. And I knew it was for a purpose.

Our family three weeks ago, had a turn of events that would make all of us question how could this be happening. I sometimes still catch myself saying that phrase..then I remember....WAIT. We knew this life would be difficult. We knew it would be HARD..So with what has happened, it has made me stop in my tracks and THINK. What is most important.

To me..my family is very important. I believe it will through these difficult times..through the trials we are all going through, that will bring us all closer together as a family unit.

I know for me..I get my comfort in turning to my Father In Heaven. He knows us. He knew the trials we would go through. I am so grateful for the belief's that I have. I am so grateful that we have the Atonement. I know the situation will not change and that this will not be easy..but I do know, Our Savior Jesus Christ, has felt all of the feelings that have been haunting me day in and day out. He knows what we are going through. He can and will HEAL us. It is just going to take faith on our part.

I am going to post verbatim what my brother, Matt, posted on his facebook last night. It has been an incredibly hard time for our family. One day life is normal..the next it all changes.

It really makes you think about what is important in life...this has taught me to cherish every single moment I have with my family, not that I cherished it before..but it definitely is an eye opener. It kills me that I have to be so far away from them during this time. I know that they are not alone going through this trial.I know Heavenly Father has NOT EVER LEFT Their side. I know my heart is always with you matt and jocelyn. I was so blessed to be able to go down and help you guys for the small amount of time that I was able to.

Here is my brother, matt's, description from last night..

‎2 years, 4 months, 13 days, 2 hours, 16 minutes and 30 seconds ago, (and counting), Avery was born.

2 years, 4 months and 12 days ago, we brought Avery home for the first time.

23 days, 20 hours and 36 minutes ago, what we thought was just another routine childhood illness with a fever began.

16 days, 3 hours, and 39 minutes ago we were hit with a freight train when we found a mass on Avery's left kidney.

8 days, 2 hours, and 43 minutes ago, the cancer-laden left kidney was removed.

In 1 day, 15 hours and 44 minutes, we will begin chemotherapy to destroy the remaining cancer. This will shortly be followed with radiation therapy. Over the next 6-8 months the fight will continue...

But for now, as of 45 minutes and 30 seconds ago, we FINALLY were reunited as a family.......at HOME! Yes, that is right! Avery is home!!!! Her surgery for her port-a-cath placement went well and they decided we could go home today! We are blessed to have such great family and friends supporting Avery (and us) during this time. We are thankfull to all. It might take some time to say thank you, return calls, messages etc..... but till then, realize many thanks and much appreciation! I will keep everyone posted, but for now, I am gonna go have a nap, on MY bed, with MY daughter, in MY house, on her homecoming.

I know my family would appreciate all the prayers we can get for my beautiful little two year old niece, Avery, and her battle with stage 4 cancer. I know God is a God of miracles. I know he hears each and everyone of our prayers. I am so grateful tonight.. as I sat here at my computer.....i got a phone call from my amazing little avery. We talked again about "ruff ruff" her "pretty lips" i sang to her twinkle twinkle little star..as well as hickory dickory Dock. We talked and i listened to her voice and it made me smile. She just melts my heart. These call's that matt and jocie do for me, they mean the world to me. I Love that little girl as if she is my own.

To back track for those of you that follow me(if I even have any follower's left hahaha) We have tried to keep everyone updated and informed via facebook. But I wanted to be able to journal the events happening.

This is again written by my brother to let our family and friend's know what was going on after we got her results back from her pathology reports.

"Hmmm.... where to begin. So much information, so little space. First off. pathology finally came back. Avery's diagnosis is High Risk Wilms, Favorable Histology. They removed 8 lymph nodes during her surgery and one was positive. The tumor has also spread to her lungs with numerous (i.e. 15 or so) metastatic lesions in both lungs. This makes her cancer a Stage 4. ‎(Stage 1 being the “best” i.e. least amount of disease, Stage 4 having tumor spread to other parts of the body which of course is never a good thing). What does this all mean? Well, as with everything else, Joce and I need to make a decision on whether or not to undergo conventional therapy or enroll Avery in a clinical trial for a different protocol of therapy. The main differences between the two are the types of chemotherapy used. Either way, given she has Stage 4 disease; she will need radiation therapy to her abdomen and all the risks and problems associated with that. We will get the radiation therapy planning CT tomorrow, the chest port for long term IV access on Friday, and will start chemotherapy and radiation treatments on Wednesday or Thursday of next week. The chemotherapy regimen will last 25 or 31 weeks depending on how she responds and what protocol we fall into based upon her clinical response (i.e. are the pulmonary metastatic lesions going away) as well as the results of DNA analysis of the tumor.) Please continue to pray for Avery as we continue this marathon. Thank you all for your support and prayers."

Back track to just a couple weeks ago. I will never forget the phone call my mom and dad received from my brother. It was a wed or thursday night. I happened to be over hanging out (which i do quite often). The minute my mom got off the phone I knew something was up. As you can tell you can see how difficult this was to take in. Avery had been very ill for about 10 days. One minute you think your baby is just sick, you know the sickness we all get a couple time's a year...then the next, as part of that workup you find out that your baby has a 9 cm cancerous tumor on her left kidney. I know for me, it seemed as if the world started spinning slower and slower. I was in shock. It didnt quite hit me until friday evening. Then my eomtions hit me like a brick wall. She was admitted to the hospital and I could feel how your entire life starts to spin around you. My dad and mom and I packed up and headed down to california on monday. 4 days after the first phone call from my brother. I am so blessed I was able to go. Spending my nights with avery in the hospital have turned out to be some of the most spiritual most amazing nights that I have had. She is amazing. Her spirit is so strong. She is a fighter. I mean of course she is..she is a Pond..and those that do know us..well you know we can put up a hell of a fight. (sorry mom and dad i swore..:) you still love me right?

Anyhow..Avery has had her cancer-laden kidney removed. Like my brother said up above, she starts chemo and radiation to destroy the remaining cancer in her little body. It is going to be a fight. And i just am asking for anyone who reads this..friend or stranger, to please pray for my family.Pray for precious little Avery.. Pray for strength for Averys Parents. I know my family really appreciates it.

While I was in the hospital with Avery one night..I was listening to my ipod softly. She had just fallen asleep after a long exhausting day after her surgery. I sat and watched her sleeping in her "dungeon princess crib" I called it. The lyrics started playing and i just got so emotional. I sat and watched her. I knew that I was going to have to leave in a few days. I was emotional. but this was just the song I needed to hear at the time. I sat and watched her breathe in and out for hours. I titled this post, Breath in and Breathe out.

The song was by mat kearney and it is titled "breathe in and breathe out". It is by far one of my favorites..

Breathe in, breathe out
Tell me all of your doubts
Everybody bleeds this way, just the same
Breathe in, breathe out
Move on and break down
If everyone goes away, I will stay
We push and pull
And I fall down sometimes
And I’m not letting go
You hold the other line
Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Hold on, hold tight
If I’m out of your sight
And everything keeps moving on, moving on
Hold on, hold tight
Make it through another night
In every day there comes a song with the dawn
We push and pull
And I fall down sometimes
And I’m not letting go
You hold the other line
Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out

Look left, look right
To the moon and the night
Everything under the stars is in your arms

Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Anyhow.I will have to journal post my pics of my time while I was with her this last week. I just need to get them loaded to my computer.

here is one of me and my princess in her hospital room one morning:)

For now..every ones prayers for my family are greatly appreciated.

when life throws you a lemon......take a bite out of these

2011-07-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

BEST doorbell suprise EVER~!

check it out~

I mean how could these not cheer you up when you have had an emotionally exhausting week/weekend.

.....to the culprit who made these for me(you know you you are)...you seriously made my night.. and yes, I have to admit I almost peed my pants because I was laughing so hard. These trully did put a smile on my face..in fact, everytime I look at them I start laughing hysterically to the point I actually might have peed my pants ...TMI..sorry.

The best part is, I went to take a bite out of the bottom half, it actually made me feel a little dirty biting the part of the cookie with the string bikini~ just sayin..but of course it didnt stop me. Wonder what the top half will make me feel like...:)I cant wait!

truly..hands down.. one of the BEST gifts EVER to cheer you up when you are feeling down.

mosquitos are the devil

2011-07-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

yes..mosquito's are the devil. i hate the itching madness..I hate that they love me so very much. i mean.. i am quite the catch..hahahahahaha ..jk..but really..i am pretty sure those biting little boogers are of the devil. and really..one bit my hand right next to my thumb..it Itch's so freakin bad. And who bites someone right next to your thumb..it just seems like such a weird spot...i am not going to mention the other 40 bazillion bites i have everywhere else...it is driving me c r a z y~

on the other hand..the lighting storm tonight was freakin amazing. Like really really spectacular. It was so amazing to watch the sky light up. i am pretty sure for me tonight was much more amazing then the fireworks yesterday. yesterday was a hard day for me.. that and tonight i had my two little boys back with me watching this spectacular event play out also. this is something they have never seen to this extent before. they loved it. we were driving across the valley tonight following the storm and i am pretty sure it made my kids night..it made my night also... it was so beautiful. lighting storm watching is a bonus while living in utah during the good ol summer. it has been over 11 years since i have seen something as amazing as what i saw tonight.

on another note....my low beam light on my van went out. my lil bro and dad had tried fixing it but it was not budging. in fact we accidentally changed the wrong light bulb and changed the high beam instead of the low beam..but i decided to go drive over to o'riellys auto part store. At the time we didnt know we had changed the wrong bulb. I just want to give a huge shout out and thank you to the boy who worked there tonight(who might i add.. was very rough looking around the edges, and looked as if he was from the west side gang here in utah..it that exists..i am pretty sure it exists) He did not have to change this light..in fact he had told me that the company used to help customers in fixing things but this one one they don't like to fix because with my van this light is very difficult to change and can break stuff if you are not careful. he said there were too many things that could break and the store doesn't want to be liable....but out of the goodness of his heart, after I am pretty sure he could see i was almost about to start crying(it had been a difficult last 24 hours and for some reason my emotion started to come out of nowhere in the middle of the store),he told me he would come outside with me and take a look at it. Not sure if he wanted to help fix it or try to just get me to NOT cry. hahahahahaha but He ended up spending over 45 mins of his time to help fix it. He said it was the most stubborn part he has ever had to fix. He also mentioned multiple times how much he hates minivans and couldn't understand why i drove this. bahahahahahah.. Did i mention it was pouring rain while he worked on changing the light.What this boy didn't realize was how much this meant to me. i have been going through a whole lot and this little act of service seriously made my night. Did I mention how I didn't have to pay him a dime(except for the actual part..I thanked him over and over and made sure he knew how grateful I was and how he made my night. He went back inside to work, inside where it wasn't raining.... i went to get my car started to drive home..and poof .my car didn't start. i sat there about ready to start crying. again. I just felt so helpless. I called my dad to come jump start my car. I had sat in my car for a few minutes and decided I would just go into the store again so I could wait for my dad out of the rain. The boy who worked there asked if everything was ok ..I told him my car had died...he said ..oh no problem..he can come jump start it for me. they have special machines that hook to the battery and it will start up super fast. He then informed me the reason it died was because I have a weak battery installed from walmart..lovely..but he told me he could jump start it. So then I call my dad back to tell him to not worry about coming out to the store to help me..and what I ended up saying to my dad went like this..."dad you don't need to come..they are jumping me right now." WOW..double WOW ..that came out wrong. lets just say.. my cute dad about died of laughter..not to mention, the two people who work at the store just about fell over from laughing so hard. I am glad I was able to make two people who looked straight out of the west side gang laugh that hard. It also made me laugh. like really laugh. like gut wrenching laugh..that laugh was very much what I needed. I love how laughter is therapy. The boy from the store told me the other person who worked at the store also drove a minivan and that I should start a minivan gang..I told him i would think about it. bahahahaha..i could start the "west side bullet" minivan gang. I decided I would do it. As of know, there is my van, and the other store employees van..so anyone else who is in..let me know..i will get the bandannas made.

...and with that..it is getting late..the thunder is booming my house right now.The rain is pouring down and the lighting is still lighting up the sky.

all will be well ...there are lots of things to be grateful for, despite the trials.

oh one last thing..conner played his baseball game tonight! he freakin rocked! that'A boy lil C! you make your momma proud! And you rocked it out tonight! I love watching you play baseball!

Califor-NI-A Oranges

2011-06-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

This morning, I woke up and thought how much I was craving sinking my teeth into this: I know you are looking at this thinking..an orange...really...but seriously..hooly mother of goodness..these are A-freakin-mazing!

We went to california a few months ago. I made it a point to make sure the oranges got loaded into the car.. before even the kids did. The kids didnt mind though because i am pretty sure they ate more of these a day then I did.

If any of you have not sunk your teeth into an amazing california orange around oh like march-ish..then i highly suggest you make a trip to california during that time. you will not be dissapointed.

I promise you will wake up just like I did today, wishing you too had more of of these to eat in your fruit bowl.

Dear Dad…

2011-06-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Dad…

A true father is always there. He is there to spill tears of happiness when his eyes fall upon his infant daughter. He is there with arms to catch her when she takes her first steps or stumbles. He is there to teach her at the youngest age, even though she might not understand half of it. He is there to help her color inside the lines, to tie her shoes. He is there to teach her how to throw a baseball or kick a soccer ball. He is there to teach her how to float in the water in the hottub so she can gaze above at the stars. He is there to hug her and kiss her on her first days of school, and to walk her in if need be. He is there to teach her and tease her and laugh with her. He is there to tell her to go ask her mother, when her mother told her to ask him. He is there to lecture her, prepare her for the monster called high school. He is there to put up with her teenage moods and her crazy relationships. He is there to approve, disapprove, accept and forgive. He is there to give her a gorgeous flower lei when she graduates from that place called high school, to smile when her name is called and feel proud. He is there to embrace her and kiss her before she goes to live hundreds of miles away for her next life adventure with her newly married self. He is there cheering her on and crying tears of happiness as she becomes a mother herself. He is there to hold and comfort her firstborn son and he gets poked and prodded his first two weeks of life. He is there to take her second son on little adventures to cheer him up while his big brother is at school. He is there to teach those little children how to color in the lines and how to kick a soccer ball. He is there to approve, disapprove the things that will come up in those little boys lives. He is there to hold up the flood gates as his daughter faces many trials that will test her to the core. He is there to watch her grow as the lines on his face grow. But most importantly, He is always there to welcome her home, always, and let her hug him and smell the smell she remembers from childhood, the warm, protecting, comforting smell of dad. And most of all, he is always there to love her. And she is always there to love him back.

Dad …I just want to tall you how grateful I am for you. Having a dad like you is one of the greatest blessings in my life. I am so blessed to be one of your amazing children. I am very blessed to be able to call you my dad. Thank you for always being there for me. You have been the rock that has held me up and I hope you know what an amazing dad you are. Happy fathers day daddy!! I love you lots and lots!:)

Your daughter

shauna

A new ME

2011-06-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

I am working on becoming a new me. I know ..you are all probably thinking ..a new shauna??? why on earth would she want to do that...no worries..I am still the old me..just wanting to define a part of me that hasn't been as present as I have wanted it to be.

I have had some life experiences and events that have happened in my life these last few years that have made me question what is true happiness? I have always thought I had that true happiness, and i thought i had known what that meant.

Then things happen to us and that true happiness feeling that we all can have gets shaken to the core. Like it has for me. I have decided that through these difficult trials that i have been going through,I no longer want to give up on me. I no longer want to give up on what I want for myself. I have asked myself many of times..what can help bring me that true happiness I have been wanting back. Any one of us achieve that true happiness within....and what better time to start getting that back than the present.

So here we have it..I am so excited to take these trials and turn them into valuable lessons for me to one day share and be able to help other people through difficult times as well. I have learned so much about trials and tribulations. I have felt what felt like the flood gates just keep rushing in my life for what can go wrong has gone wrong. I have very many times asked myself..why me..why is this happening to me? It seems like when you think nothing else can get you down ...there is always something that will try to knock you to the ground. Satan is so real. He wants nothing more than to destroy us. He has a plan and his plan is to ruin those that he can get his grasp on. Well guess what Satan..you will not win on my turf. I will not let you win.

Even through these trials that I have been through and am currently experiencing, I can say Iam very grateful for all the many blessings that have happened to me. It seems that everywhere Ilook there is something that happens everyday that helps me
realize how true little miracles can happen in our lives everyday,if we so allow them to. There really are tender mercies that happen. It had taken awhile for me to realize that their is a happiness that can ensue if we allow it. I am working on getting that happiness back.

I was doing some reading( i know ..right..me reading..another miracle)but that is another thing i am am changing..a new reading me! yay)

I have been questioning my own true happiness for quite sometime. It is crazy that yes, even me..the one who seems to have it together..can still feel the need to ask myself this question.

I have been doing alot of soul searching. I have asked myself over and over trying to figure out what TRUE HAPPINESS really means...I read this below and thought it fit perfectly with what i had been experiencing the last few years..."We often fall into the trap of thinking a new car, job promotion, beauty makeover, or fame will make us happy. And often they do—for a time. But it never lasts because wealth, power, beauty, and fame simply don’t bring lasting happiness, as much as we wish they would.

So then i read this..
True Happiness
"True happiness comes from following Christ’s example and developing Christlike attributes such as obedience, goodness, honesty, gratitude, humility, love, charity, and forgiveness. It comes from serving others and helping them to follow Jesus Christ. It comes from controlling the appetites of our human bodies and following the promptings of the Spirit. It comes from working hard and having a healthy lifestyle, friends, family, and personal achievements.

"Regardless of what you do or don’t have in this life, your deepest, most lasting happiness will come from knowing God’s plan and following it.

And that folks is just what I needed to hear to get me through these hard times. This is what it is all about. I know things are never easy. But it hit me that through the hardest of trials...i have learned one thing. There is a power greater than us to help us during our hard times. The Savior, Jesus Christ is there. He can lead us and guide us. I have felt him so much lately and I wouldn't trade that feeling for anything else in the world. It is something I will not take lightly. It is something I have decided that I want to be able to do..It is working on this new me...(which means me,basically being the same amazingly awesome person I was..just with a little bit of extra "umphh" to make me be the person I want to be.)

I want to be close to our Savior. I want to be able to be an example to people that even when things get hard that they can still see that light that shines within me. For those of you that have been and are struggling..There is a peace that can be found. I have felt it.

Here are a few of the quotes that i have lived by the last little while....

"U never know how strong you are, until being strong is the only choice you have."

“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”

"it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left. Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same."

I am so excited to continue on with the new me!

ok enough of my ramblings for the night.

Check out these adorable little cowboys in my life..

I mean these little men are the light of my life..and i am so grateful for them!

missing in action

2011-05-07T08:21:00.001-07:00

I have more than anything been wanting to "journel" for the last little while. I had a small standstill that has made it so i couldnt do it..but yay... i finially got my computer internet working again to the point where i can blog again!! yay! so hopefully there will be a little more of me and all the craziness of my family!

For now here is a pic i ran across that just made me laugh.

I mean, can me and my lil bro be any more "attractive"! just sayin!

Holi Festival twenty eleven!

2011-03-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

Looks like I found a new family tradition out here in this ol promised land. We got to go celebrate the Holi festival out here in ol springville, ut. Who woulda thunk that this crazy beautiful building would be sittin out in the middle of farm country...amazingly beautiful ain't it!

Yesterday we went to what is more commonly known as the festival of Coloouuurs! It was unlike anything i have ever been to...and being a portlander..we have have been to many many cool festivals.. but not one quite like this. It was seriously so freakin awesome. I am not sure who had more fun...the mom's... or the kids! it was sooo freakin awesome! I learned that this festival is a ritual done by the hindu religion. Holi marks the end of the winter gloom and rejoices in the bloom of the spring time. So we took advantage of it, oh yes we did.

this is going to be a picture *overload* ...but i just loved all of them all sooo freakin much!
the best part was walking up to this hindu temple..as we were walking we of course had not been "hit" with our first wad of color yet...well the kids would yell to the crowds of people walking by to hit em..and hit em they did! one lady even tried to ask gavin for a hug. ?who does that?..some strange lady wanting to hug my 4 year old...ewww wierd and gross...he of course has good stranger danger and said no. I then remembered where we were at, and realized she wanted to get color all over us since we were white. So my friend melissa and I decided to go ahead and give her a good ol hug. boy of boy..that was interesting to say the least!

And it is still a mystery how this lil princess was able to stay so colorfree....but lil zaya sure was adorable probably being the only one of thousands left barely unscathed!!

little rascals

2011-03-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

The little Rascals. ? who is with me on this being one of the coolest movies of all times back when we were little? When this movie first came out, it was one of my FAVORITE'S . i remember being a kid and i would watch it with my lil brother over and over and over. we just loved this movie.

I introduced my kids to this movie sometime ago..it is now one of their absolute favorite movie's EVER. they can watch it over and over and over. Each time they watch, they laugh and laugh and laugh. which makes me laugh because i did that same thing as a little girl.

Both of my boys got a big "makeover's" a few weeks ago. It had taken some time for their mama and daddio to decide if doing that was what was best for them. I wanted to make sure they were both on board with wanting to go with the dramatic change..Our kids LOVED their LONG LOCKS. They have been sporting the "surfer boy" or "skater boy"(as gavinator would call it) look for quite some time now.

Now, I know I am little biased, but, I think my chillens are both super adorable. long hair, short hair..no hair..i just plain ol' think they are A-D-O-R-D-A-B-L-E, adorable with a capital "A" Hair is hair after all..it can always grow back.

We had found out a little bit ago that apparently C-man had some kids teasing him and starting to bully him at school due to his hair. I didn't want to give in to the little craps(the bullies), but i also didn't want my son being teased. Nobody wants that for their children. I absolutely have a zero tolerence for bullies and bullying behavior. I do not like it one bit. I have tried really hard to teach that to my children. I am so glad they are realizing that bullying is NOT ok. Apparently, the county we live, well it seems to have alot of old fashioned rednecks. I feel like they raise their kids to think a certain "look" is not ok. Apparently children, moreover boys, with longer hair, is considered one of "those". I was going to go off on a tangent about this, but i am not. I simply refuse.

My hubster and I gave it some thought and we decided to have the kids get "makeovers"(if they wanted to) and see if that helped anything on the school front.

... as soon as "auntie alex' starting shaping and cutting away some of the locks on each boys head, she made this for the C Man!...He was so EXCITED how much he looked like alfa alfa on little rascals. (thus the entro to the little rascals)(sorry for the poor pic quality)

Con Mans Before and After's

i love his face while he is being taught how to style it!

...and i had to throw this picture in because he stood in the mirror and just smiled while he was checking out his new do..it was so freakin cute!

Gavinators' before and Afters

All in all between the two little rascals we cut off about 11 inches of hair(combined of course)

The hair cuts were a HIT. And the thankfully... the teasing has stopped at school as well.YAY! so all in all, it was a sucess! well, that was until little gavinator tried to go to bed that first night of his big haircut. you see...he has to twirl his finger around his hair. It helps him to relax and fall asleep(he has done it since he was a little tiny baby). He quickly realized that he didnt have enough hair to do that. So as cute as we all think they both look..the gavinator asked that VERY night if he could grow it back to the "surfer boy" hair again! ahahahahaha.
i love these cuties!

"our day" this day 11 years ago!

2011-02-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

On this day, 11 years ago. it became a day, that a tall, strikingly handsome boy and a short, super sassy girl got to make their own holiday. This is something that they will now call "our day" and have it be a happy day to remeninise for the rest of their lives from here through eternity.

there were two people. one of them was a tall, strikingly handsome boy. the other was a short,and extremely sassy girl. these two met and quickly fell in love. And well, at the time, they didn't know each other very long, but they knew they were meant for each other. This tall strikingly handsome boy and this short super sassy girl were young, but look at how far they've come, on this day, 11 years ago.

Here is to 11 years...here is to the next bazillion anniversary's to follow. i love you Jesse. happy anniversary.

we have had our fair share of ups and downs these past 11 years. we have had our bumps in the road of life...but we do have something that i think keeps us going. I have found that marriage, no matter who are are..has its ups and downs. It is how we adapt to these things that happen that will set us apart...and i have come to realize this.....

At the end of the day, all that matters, is the fact that we have EACH OTHER to get us through no matter what lies ahead. I love you Jesse. thank you for being my other half.

the lyrics to the song you sang to me on this day, 11 years ago.

PS.. i still love this song.. always and forever! when i think back to "our day", this day, eleven years ago,I remember how i was so giddy and happy that i got to be the lucky women to be standing at your side...well, i want you to know, i still feel that way. I am still giddy and i am truly happy that i am still that women standing by your side.

when the rain's blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I would offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love

When the evening shadows and the stars appear
And there is no one to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love

I know you haven't made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong
I've known it from the moment that we met
So no doubt in my mind where you belong

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue
I'd go crawling down the avenue
There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love

The storms are raging on a rolling sea
And down the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
But you ain't seen nothin' like me yet

There ain't nothin' that I wouldn't do
Go to the ends of the earth for you
Make you happy, make your dreams come true
To make you feel my love

This song still holds true!

Journaling

2011-01-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

At school, Conner does daily journal entries. He came home two days ago, and I found this bitty in his backpack(look below). I just wish I could have been a fly on the wall when his teacher eyed this. I mean REALLY, I wish I could've seen her face...This CRACKS ME UP!

"my dog pood and peed in the haws." (As written by my con man)

I must say this is probably one of the funniest journal entries I have seen. It cracks me up.
I especially love the yellow colored pee, and the pile of Sh&* (poop) he put behind the dog.

DIRTY 30-

2011-01-11T11:08:00.001-08:00

Yes..IT has come. The dear DREADED DIRTY AND 30! It has come, it has left. It wasn't as bad as I had expected, and now I sit here reminiscing.

I have had the most amazing support from all my family and friends. This relocation has been pretty hard on me..but I am just so grateful for the people who have helped me make it easier in any way they could.

The big 30:

Here it is..MY STORY!
My p-town BESties sent me an amazing birthday package full of amazing gifts and goodies and treats! It made me to happy to have a piece of them with me and get a good laugh that I so dearly needed. Each each gift I opeaned would get me laughing...it made me think and remember our amazing wallie world trips we had together. I must say the "do-rag" was most defiantly on the top of my most amazing gifts. This special "do-rag" makes those amazing waved curl line thingys in your head..i will try to find a picture to show. oh oh here it is..check this out..i loved it

..the other highlight was the special"KY jelly pack" they picked out. The funny part was that my 7 year old son opened this gift. He started to read the title and I grabbed and hid it. Laughing hysterically, I got to dodge the questions that ensued after that. Oh boy..it was so fun getting that surprise package and all the amazing gifts! It really did cheer me up.

Being in utah, it has been a huuuuge adjustment for me..well, huge, is an understatement. I truly was not looking forward to my birthday. But my amazing family and amazing lil bro had other plans. Let me introduce Imax, (special nickname he got this last year) who planned, and executed a Very memorable surprise. He made this a day for me to remember that's for sure.

What is special about this boy, is on Nov 28th, 1984 he made his grand entrance into this world. He was born on my 4th birthday. (my parents always called us twins 4 years apart.) He may not know it, but I truly idolized him.. I remember being 4, and going to the hospital. I remember getting to sit in the chair in my moms room and locking my eyes on him. I was so happy. I remember getting to hold him. I thought it was sooo cool to have him born on my birthday. I totally remember the nurses spoiled me rotten while those yummy Andes mints. I immediately felt this bond with him. I thought he was the most adorable lil brother one sister could truly have. He truly was the best birthday gift any four year old could get..i got to have a baby brother to tease non stop the rest of his life. And when i got home i got to unwrap a a gift of my own, a baby doll, and a beautiful little rocker crib thingy for "my" baby.

Well, I had not been the best big sister to this adorable Imax..I would always get him in trouble for things i did. :( i am not proud of that. But, I truly have tried in my older age to make up it!:) I love him more than words can describe. I mean ..just look at him. Can you blame me.

(ladies..he is single,and ready to mingle)

The sat b4 my birthday, I was told I needed to be at my moms house no later than 3:00 pm sharp. I was to be kid free. (thanks hubby for being with kiddos!) I was told I had a whole evening of surprises planned, and I just got to go along for the ride. Anyone who knows me well, knows how much I LOVEEEEE surprises! (I love,love,love surprises)

I get to my moms, I start laughing because me and my little bro's outfits coordinated.(unplanned) I was in white pants, black shirt..he was in a black shirt, white tie! I love Imax and his amazing sense of style! He whisked me away with my mom in tow. I got all settled in his car. It was awesome sitting in the back with my mom..she is the funniest in the car..especially when Imax drives. We giggled and laughed and had a grand ol' time. Imax then hands me a cute Little envelope with my name on it..I open it. Inside...a massage certificate. It was just what the Doc ordered! Especially since I had woken up that morning with a stiff neck from H E double hockey sticks. I was sooo EXCITED! Not only a massage, but we were all going to get one..(not together in one room, sillies)

I was sooo excited. We arrived at the massage place. It was soo awesome. My mom, who we are not going to state her age, got her First massage EVER! like EVER. It was soo awesome to be their with my brother, mom, sis in law amber, and my bros friend Ann. It was such a surprise! and ohhh sooo soo fun to be able to be all together. It was awesome to be able to have us all get much needed relaxing time and enjoy our hour long massages. Truly amazing.

Here we all are right after our massages..oh man it was heavenly. (dont mind us all looking a little "relaxed" and worn!) I actually think we all look DANG GOOD for just sleeping for an hour and getting our stresses rubbed out of us!

We all got back into the car..I got to sit with my eyes closed to our next destination..(I didn't even cheat)..(ok maybe once), (but only when my mom started have a tiiiiny weeny bit of anxiety attack as my brother was driving)..ahahaha...(I had to open my eyes for a moment to see what was happening!)

We arrive at the next destination. I get to open my eyes and see we have arrived at the one and only Texas Roadhouse Grill. YUMMMMMMY and double yummy. As I walk in the doors..I SEE my ENTIRE FAMILY waiting. This was a huuge SURPRISE! We had my adorable brother, Rodger and his kids(his wifey was with me)..my hubby and kids..my dad and mom,.. my other older brother, Matt and Joce and their kids (They actually live in cali, and i was so excited and happy they were there...the ENTIRE fam!!!) and of course me and Imax. It was soo freakin awesome. I was so excited.. I was shocked.. My brother Matt and fam had driven up that day from CALI, and made it to utah just in time for the surprise dinner. He was planning on flying out from slc to chicago on monday, and they decied to come up to utah a couple days early so they could spend the weekend with all of us..It made my day! I was soo excited to see everyone together. TO see all my nieces and nephews(well not all of them could make it and truly, the ones who were out of state were surely missed) and to see my family all together made me so happy. It has been years since I have been able to be together with my family.

We finally get seated and settled, and I am told there is one more surprise person coming to dinner. I had actually NO idea who that might be. A little bit later, in walks my old bestie from portland, Heidi and her family. I was so HAPPY. They moved to utah almost 2 years..and since we currently live about an hour away from each other, we haven't really been able to see each other very much at all. It was soo awesome! I felt so loved!

Some pics of the dinner that night:

(ughh horrrible picture of me..and the first one is blurry..but they made Imax and I sit on a saddle while the entire resturant sang "happy birthday" to us..The second picture I was so confused how we were both going to both fit on this saddle) ahahaha

It was soo awesome to look around at all these people and be soo happy they all came here for ME! To make it special for me! All 23 or 24 four of us..i couldn't even count to keep track ahahahaha! My cute lil bro planned this all for ME! My freakin awesome fam came together for me! I was speechless. It was soo amazing. We had an amazing dinner.

After dinner little Imax pulled out one last surprise. He had arranged for all the girls in my family to go see a Chick Flick. He would take my hubby and kidlets ( who, J still at the time still couldn't drive and was in a cast) and home.

Imax..thank you for going over,a bove and beyond to make this a special big 30th for me. I love my brothers..I have the BEST BROTHERS EVER!

The girls had a blast at the movie that night.....i am not going to mention the movie we saw..but lets just say Jake Gyllenhaall is soo freakin hot! ahahahaha! It was great

I truly had a great night. I am so blessed to be able to live close to family. It has been so hard to adjust to Utah, I have felt sooo lost and sooo out of place..but right now, it is my family that is getting me by. They are my ROCK ..They are RIGHT here helping me every step of the WAY! I loveees them lots!

I have an amazing family. I am truly blessed.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-24T22:31:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe I have let my blogging/journeling go this long without a post. So much has been happening and I guess I have just been on a mental hiatus! I have lots to write about..soon.... updates will happen soon.

for now..

Happy Holidays!!

Here is our lovely traditional xmas Eve super fast photo shoot my the tree!(it was suppppppppppper late)and seriously the kids wanted to torture joey and have him in every Christmas shot! they ADORE this dog..and Adore is a HUUUGE understatement!

These boys are whats it is all about!

Love,
the Christensen's

The Dandelion

2010-11-10T07:52:00.000-08:00

Last night, I was heading up to bed, to do the usual routine..brush teeth..get in jammies...go pee..kiss my boys goodnight for the millionth time, you know, the usual stuff we all do before all head off to "dreamyland." I walked into my bathroom and found this.

Now, I mentioned in earlier posts, that my little gavin loves to surprise me with these little treasures! He loves to give them to me.

Last night, after I saw this, it truly made me smile from EAR to EAR. I was soo grateful for this little surprise. I sat and looked at how he carefully placed it in the water to keep it alive as long as he could. I love how he used one of his cups he uses after he brushes his teeth to rinse. I love how it was probably a used one because there was a smudge of toothpaste or something on the side of the cup. I love how he cleared off a small portion on my counter to place it right in front for me to see. I love how the flower must have been there most of the day because it had definitely seen better days. I love that he never said a word about this. We both went about our day. I love how he kept this a secret all day, even from his big brother, who he tells everything too. I love how he planned it out, and he knew that after a long day I would wind up in the bathroom to get ready for bed.

My little man had been out playing outside earlier in the day. I remember him telling me he needed to run upstairs for something..but I didn't think anything of it. Our busy lives happened.

It was amazing to me how much that little dandelion meant to me. It MELTED my heart!

This morning, after little gavinator and I had gotten the con man off to school..he came up and gave me a huge hug. I told him that mommy loved him soo much and that he gave me the best surprise EVER. He then got the cutest little smirk/smile on his face and said, "mommy, I surprised you mommy! Is it still in the water..? If it ever dies..ill get you a new one." He was sooo excited. It melted my heart again.

He just really know how to get to my heart. I have the bestest boys in the world!
Watch out ladies..this little ladies man MINE.

The little things that make my heart smile.

2010-10-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

There has been sooo much craziness going on in this household, that I wanted to get out and do something I knew the kids would LOVE...pumpkin patch's.

Except..this year we haven't been to any.... And this year we would be minus one cute daddy. The kids promised to take lots pictures for daddy.

In p_town, we would probably visit over 10 pumpkin patches in the months of sept/oct. We had a tradition to go to as many as we could fit in. It was always a super cheap and fun adventure to take the kids on.

We have had a rough spout with tough luck lately ...so yesterday I wanted to get away. I wanted to get away, and do something with my boys! I wanted to do s,omething that I knew would take us all out of our funk, and make us happy. I called up my parents. I loaded up my kids, and off to grandma and grandpas we went.

We deiced to go to a cute little pumpkin patch by their house. Lets just say, it was just what the Dr ordered. I am not sure who had more fun..me, my boys, or my parents. It was nice to escape the pressure of my everyday life, and just take some time to to enjoy the simple things in life.

The winter weather has definitely settled in good ol Ut. It has rained/snowed off and on for the last 3 days. Yesterday, it was a high of 40 degrees maybe. The weather cleared out for a few hours and it was PERFFECT! The sky was perfectly clear,..The clouds were AMAZING,...the air smelled amazing,..and you could see the first snowfall that had just fallen on the mountains. It was a perfect day. We even enjoyed the MUD. I almost got my silver bullet stuck in this clay like mud..which would of added to the humor of everything seems to go wrong..i would have had to call triple AAA..but thank goodness the good ol' van pulled through, and i was able to get out! Phew! I didnt even mind the mass of mud we all accumulated on our shoes!(thanks dad for cleaning those for us!)

I wish i could have recorded my kids excited screams of joy when they say the snow on the mountains. It was cute because Gavinator saw the mountains. He then asked me if I could take him back to "Mountain HOod"(thats what my boys call MT. HOOD) to go sledding. I told him this year he wouldn't need to travel to "mountain hood" to see snow..that this year there would be snow in his own backyard.. both boys squealed with delight. They were so baffled that snow would be in their own yard to play with..For them it was the best news EVER! The fact that they would not have to travel to great lengths to get to it made them sooo HAPPY. It cracked me up!

I mean really...these would make any ones heart smile.

I just want to say how much I love these little Guys! They make life worth it!

water chestnuts

2010-10-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight we sat down for our first family dinner in a looong time. The boys chose stir fry..its a family favorite.

We are all eating enjoying every bite..when conner turns to me and tells me how much he loves waterchestnuts. I tell him he must get that from me...because i too love water chestnuts. He then stops eating and I can tell he is thinking. He then asks, "mom...where do water chestnuts come from..? do they come from treasure chests?"

Before I have a chance to respond, gavin asks us, "please pass the treasure nuts?"

he didnt even reaize what we were saying, and he too wanted some more waterchestnuts! We all cracked up.
...and we laughed. Just what i needed.

Man it is sooo good to be home to my boys. I have missed them terribly.

A month has already come and Gone

2010-10-13T09:42:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe a month, actually more..has actually come and gone. I feel like i am still in this crazy bad dream and i need to be woken up. We have had quite the whirlwind of trials around us, but we are alive. We are enduring and we are making it through.

In the last month, We have moved into our new home. We barely started to get a little bit settled, when we had to turn around and come back to Ptown to get jesses poor foot checked out. Once the swelling went down we both saw that is clearly wasnt healing correctly. And since the good ol health insurance was in portland..we packed into the van and headed back up to PTown.

In a month we have:
*packed up house and moved to a new state
*got to see family!
*had the besties hitch a ride with the Shane Myster while he hauled down a second 24 foot trailer to our house from portland because we ran out of room on the first trailer(we had WAAY more jumk than we thought we did)
*had the besties surprise me in utah and help unpack and decorate(first time ever i have been speechless before) and cannot thank them enough for what they did for us
*spent about 32 hours in our little silver bullet commuting back and forth to utah then back to portland.
*got to see our BESTIES
*Got to enjoy their adorable kids
* kids got to miss almost a total of 4 weeks of school due to the move and then the sudden trip back up to ptown.
*got to enjoy a good ol highschool football game
*Had 3 docs mis diagnose J's injury in the first place
*instantly became a foot legend in the orthopedic doctorate world
*learned all about the les Franc injury and how shocked docs were to find out this is really what J had..and watch as multiple people who worked at the clinic would come in just to take a look
*spent hours on end in hospital
*endured major surgery..a bone graph from knee...fusing of the bones together..6 screws and slicing of the calf muscle to shorten it and help remake an arch.
*J mastered his crutches( a good thing since he will be on them for 3 months)
*Told lots of "screw" jokes due to the screws in jesses foot
*had my sis nickname J the bionic foot man!
*kids got strep..the bestie totally helped take care of them the day of jesses surgery...that was one of the hardest days EVER..but i was soo grateful to my bestie..sad as it was..it was a huge blessing they got sick b4 they went back to utah so i could take them to the doc and get it taken care of with health insurance.
*kids got to enjoy a plane ride back to utah with gramma
*kids have been having a blast with gramma...cousins..aunts and uncles..and have been amazingly cared for by the family.
*spent 3.5 days in the hospital..and happened to get the stinkiest of room/floor
*endured listening to the man in the room next to us at the hospital cough, scream out loud and wretch over and over
*made it through hardest part of recovery
*learned to take things one day a time, sometimes 10 min at a time
*been able to enjoy a continental breakfast almost every morning
*Shed lots of tears
*lots of alone time to think and ponder
*lived in a rockin hotel room for almost 2 weeks
*Had the besties make some amazing meals for us..like super amazing
*had the incisions revealed last week and could not believe what i saw. I was in shock (pics to follow soon)
*found out my little niece who is only 1 broke her foot..so ive tried to talk j into a hot pink cast to match hers!(sadly dont think he will go for it)
*had the laptop totally break ,infected with a virus,then found the COOLEST COMPUTER repair shop that was able to fix it for only 40 bucks..(another miracle)
*been away from the kids for what feels like an eternity..We have not liked it one bit
*realized and actually feel at peace that utah is where we should be.
*read one almost two books(a miracle itself)

IT has been a whirlwind, and i am really anxious to get back home to my kids. We are on the countdown now...less than 3 days if all goes well tomorrow at the follow up apt. It has been quite the month. Cant wait to get back to my kids. We are actually ready to get back to the promised land...lets hope this next month is alot less exciting.
I am ready for some normelness(if that is a word)
Here is to our apt tomorrow that everything will be ok..here is to one heck of a month..and here is to another 14 hour car ride back to the promised land.

Difficult Chapter to close

2010-08-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

So I have for sure neglected my thoughts, and journeling on this blog lately, due to the extreme craziness around here. I have been meaning to document what we have been doing..but every time I sit down to get my thoughts gathered..it would just be too hard and i have been soo busy, I couldn't follow through. I am pretty sure from here on out nothing can be as hard to get through, or as difficult as this last year has been that's for sure. We are heading in with Faith that we are ready for our upward hill of good things to happen!

As we speak..the house has been torn upside down.Here is some picture proof!

We are getting ready for our "Fresh Start" and making our way back to the "promised land". The land where I actually thought I would never return to.

But the upside, this "promised land" is where our family's reside...so it will be UBBER nice to be able to see them more than once or twice a year. The kids are suuuuuper EXcited to live close to grandpa's and grandma's and cousins. The boys have been doing amazingly awesome as we have gotten the packing kicked into high gear. they haven't shown much stress at all for the relocating..they are both excited. For me that is a huge blessing. I will also enjoy being able to see my long lost nieces and nephews that will visit ut..because every other time they have been..we have been here so i am really excited to make that relationship with them!

But of course as luck would have...exactly 5 days ago..and also one week from when we are to depart from this amazing land in Oregon,my hubby broke his foot. (This will have to be a blog post in and of itself)....it is really sad it happened, but it does kinda make me laugh thinking about the story behind it. J has been going crazy not being able to help with the packing and moving. Though i am super grateful he is very happy and super pleasant while he is on his "happy pills". I tell you, it is nice to have him make me, and my friends laugh for hours on end every night. I don't mean just a little laugh..we usually all end up rolling on the floor and some of us have laughed so hard we have literally peed our pants(no names). I tell you, I have decided laughter heals the hurt and sadness, so this has been GREAT therapy for me during this transition.

My hubby and his super cute smile from his Happy pills!

Here are some cool pics of the foot: (these were taken 5 days after the break..)
the swelling is still pretty knarly and the brusing is starting to pop out and say hi

Lets just say the last week has been INSANE. I have only cried, oh, about a BAZillion times.. I have the bestest friends who have been here to help me get through all of this, so i am not alone. I love my friends..like ALOT. They have been through some amazingly hard times with me..and they have helped me to ride through this storm....FOR that I am forever grateful for them...I heart you my besties..(you know who u are!) I love you sooo much!

I also am grateful for my family. We have had an outpouring of love and support as they too have all stepped up to help us with the relocating back to this "promised land". I truly have the best family one could ask for. I heart you too family members(you know who u are!)The sacrifice that soo many have made to help..either a phone call to say they love me or those that have stopped their busy lives to help me with the move have meant more to me than you will ever know..thank you!

Well..I will have to write and post more about some really fun adventures of our time in Ptown! I love it here..I will miss you OREGON! LIKE ALOT! You will forEVER have a SPECIAL PLACE in my heart..and I hope one day, i can make my way back here! This will prob be the last post before we head off in the uhaul in just 3 short days...:(
Destination: the "promised land"

My baby turned 4!!

2010-08-17T07:49:00.001-07:00

I cannot tell you how crazy it is that my little baby is the Big 4 years old! ..It just blows my mind he is soo big..I still remember this...

It seems just like yesterday that I was admitted into the hospital... and the doctor told me i would not leave until I had my little man going home with me!!

**(warning)** you will see a hugely prego bare belly! carry on at your own risk)

I waited as patiently as I could, while laboring by my lonesome.. while my husband had to drive over from work..in the worst traffic EVER..about 2 hours to to exact!..but thank goodness...He made it!

I was able to have J's sister(my sis in law), the one and only Alex (aka bethany) also be able to be there....

I am also soo grateful I was able to have one of my besties aka Miguel(love love her nickname) be there to witness the birth of gavin! It meant soo much me to me to have her there..and I know this is something I will NEVER EVER FORGET! I am soo happy that i was able to share this moment with her!!

..............Then at 12:04 am on August 1st, 2006...the Gavinator made his Debut!!
He weighed in at 6lbs 13oz!

Our little family!!

Little Gavintar is such a joy! He is always making us laugh! He says the funniest things! I just love him to pieces! I love that still every night he wants to snuggle his mama and he still plays with my hair the way he did when he was just a baby. I love that the first thing he does when he wakes up..is he runs into my room just to snuggle me and get his loves in. I love that about 5 min into snuggling he asks every morning without missing a beat, "im hungry..can u get me breakfreast"! I love that he tells me he loves me to the "stop sign and back..and also to his bones and back" I love that he and his big brother are the best of friends. They of course fight like no other on occasion..but they truly are the BEST of friends. I also love when he comes up to me and asks for "gessert" (dessert)!Its one of those words that I dont want him growing out of..it makes me smile!

This year, with the help of one of my besties ...we created these:

>
Little gavinator was sooo excited about them!

Here I am working hard on these little mini Darth Vader's...

notice the pile of icing on my hand because the bag got a hole in it, and I was trying soo hard not to screw these up!It was a tricky balancing act to keep the lines straight and not spill piles of icing all over them!

He had a blast at his birthday party..we opted for the same "water party" that we did for conner. The kids love the fountains and there is nothing better than hosting a birthday party that ALL the kids LOVE..not to mention it is FREE!!!

Of course this game was once again a #1 hit!

He was super excited to get his "own" scooter, now he and the con man can each haul off like crazy boys up the street.

He is soo funny..he has always been amazing at riding the razor scooter..He started riding a scooter when he was just barely one and a half...and so when he got his own ..he could not wait to do his "tricks" like hold one foot in the air! This picture just makes me laugh..he is soo silly!

I am sooo grateful for this little man! He brings so much joy to our lives!! Happy Birthday little gavinator! We sure love you!!!

The Great Un-Washed!

2010-07-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

This is one of the hubby's favorite term's. He uses it quite often when it comes to going out and doing things where there are usually alot of "interesting" people. This term is especially fitting when it comes to our local fairs and events that we have attended lately. It also applys when you go into walmart, or winco or any other money saving store which, I of course love. Well this past week, I had an experience. In fact as i sit and type this i am belly laughing, and my kids are looking at me like i am crazy.

Last week, I was attempting to find gavins little birthday present. I had been to about 6 different stores. No one had what he wanted. I had even called about 6 different stores to no avail. Thankfully, my hubby called the local Kmart here, and they ended up having one. I had been out shopping and looking all day, so conner and i decide we need to hightail it over to Kmart so i can pick up his gift. I was going to get urked if the one that was left was gone by the time we got there.

I get to the check out. I get up to the register and i open up my wallet. I was going to use the 50 dollar bill I had just put in my purse the night before.( I am not sure what it is with my family and 50 dollar bills, but i couldn't find it anywhere.) I start to panic because this is how I was going to pay for his birthday present. I ask conner if he has seen the bill. (we all know what happened last oct ahahahahaha!) He hasn't seen it, nor did he know i had one. I panic and decide if i should call jesse and see if by chance maybe he grabbed it? No,,,he wouldn't have. He just gave it to me the cash last night just so i get get gavins present. Well, as i am figuring out in my brain how i am going to pay for this, (apparently the lady at the register heard me talking to conner about it), She looks at me and says, "oh NO...50 dollars is Alot of money.(she was totally looking concerned too) She then told me(you ready for this) 50 dollars is like 2 twenties and a ten!, That is alot of money. "

I sat there and almost choked. I had to clear my throat several times because i looked at her and she was dead serious. She didnt even crack a smile about it. Good Glory..i cannot believe she said that. As I am laughing under my breath, I look down down and i found my crumpled up 50 dollars..behind my receipts, just where i put in last night. Phew...i could pay for his gift and get the heck out of the store. I laughed all the way home..then laughed some more when i told jesse...then laughed a whole lot more as the night went on. It is just too funny to me.
Gotta love the great unwashed!

Happy Birthday Conner!!!!

2010-07-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

This super cute little man had his 7th birthday!!

His bday was july 15. I am still in shock that I am old enough to have a 7 year old. We had a really fun birthday this year. He wanted to make sure he could have a party with his super amazing P-town friends before we make the big move. I thought it was a great idea, so we decided to have it at the fountains close to town here. We did his party a few days before his actual birthday. It was soo much fun. We had a blast playing in the water for his birthday.

One of my best friends makes the most AMAZING cupcakes for her family when they have birthdays. Well this year..We decided to have a girls night to learn how to do this amazing cupcake stuff. WE had a blast learning and creating this cupcake.

Lets just say my boy was WAAAAY EXCITED! I wish i had a picture of his face when he saw them for the first time! He totally freaked out! It made my heart happy!

Here are a few pics from con mans bday bash! We had alot of fun.

We played lots of fun water filled games. We had a little relay race. The kids were split into two teams. Each team had to fill up the buckets using the turkey basters. It was super funny to watch the teams try to get this one figured out. Lets just say this game was a little more difficult for some than it was for others..but i couldn't stop laughing watching them all try to get it figured out!

The other game the kids seriously love love loved, was a wet version of hot potato. We had this little ball. You then place a water balloon inside the ball and close it. There is a timer that you wind. We had the kids pass the ball in a circle. When the timer went off, the water balloon popped and got that little kid wet and had to sit in the "hot lava". The last one standing won. I am pretty sure this was the favorite game played! They all loved it.

And of course we had a good ol fashioned water balloon fight. Poor jesse became the main target for all 8 kids! ahahaha..that was hilarious.

The Con Man had such a blast. He has the greatest friends. I cannot tell you how much we are really going to miss being apart of these little guys everyday lives.

My favorite part, was on his actual birthday. I had a few things planned up my sleeve to make the day special for him..then, we let him choose what, and where he would want to eat. I was laughing because the thing he wanted to do: golfing at the driving range, and eat at the famous, sushi train. His favorite food EVER is sushi. IT cracks me up. And he was soo excited to test out his golf bag I had snagged for him at a garage sale a few months back.
I love these pics I took of him golfing!

(getting his practice swing on!)

(clobbers that golf ball!)

love this picture!

LOVE This picture too!

the gavinator getting his turn!

loved how he would run over and set his ball up!

I am sooo grateful that I get to have this handsome lil fellow as my son! happy birthday conner! We sure love you!

.

i just cant contain how much i love.......

2010-07-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

THIS....

and THIS.....

and this..( this is the fireman chicken we CRAVE EVERY YEAR) we only get it once a year at the Sherwood Robin Hood festival... let me tell you ..it is DELISH! I am already having withdrawls and i just ate it a few hours ago.

and I also love this...(kids so excited to be at the parade)

and the giggles and squeals of delight as they run in for their candy......

and this...(I wish I had a picture of this ones temper tantrums! they were soo funny... when all the other kids got to the candy first and grabbed at every last piece, it caused major heart break..he would cry soo hard and looked so SAD....I never had time to snap a picture of his cute screaming and crying..why you ask?...well, that's because his cute big brother, or the people down the way would hurry and sacrifice their own candy to give to him, no one could stand to see how sad he got. The best part is..as soon as he got the candy..the tears would cease IMMEDIATELY and he would get an instant smile! oh man.it was soo funny.

and I almost peed my pants(literally i was laughing so hard) at this...

(now zoom in on the picture. You will see old lady's dressed in leotards and gold sequence socks, marching in the parade, swinging their batons. It is an actual club here in Sherwood Oregon. I sooo want to join this club when I am old..I mean, what is better then horrific leotards, sparly socks and special wands they get to twirl, all while marching in a parade...it was soo awesome..and I laughed my head off. (this is on my bucket list when I reach oh about 70.)(and michelle, christy, and nicki..u are all doing it with me)

and i must say i love watching this...

It made my heart happy to see this little princess be tossed to and fro from her mama and dada...i love her face of pure joy as she is flying through the air!

but most of all i love this...

Today was a ubbbber fun day at the good ol' Sherwood parade and robin hood festival!

SOOO MUCH TO CATCH UP ON!

2010-07-08T14:23:00.000-07:00

We have had quite the last month. I have lots to blog about and lots to catch up on. I need to start off with the first of events that have happened in this household..

this little man graduated from kindergarten:

We are soo proud of this guy. He did soo well in school this year! We ABSOLUTELY LOVE his teacher Mrs. Haynes! She was soo awesome to plan a special graduation ceremony just for conner. We were leaving town for utah on the day of his real ceremony. She didn't want conner to miss out, so she threw him his own special party. It was sooo sweet of her and it really made me happy. We were so glad we were able to be apart of that special day! I also love that conner got to be the kid of honor for his last day of school. He thought it was soo cool to get his own graduation day!

I love how gavin loves being right in there with the kids in conners class!!

I love how his teacher had the kids get each others "autographs" it was soo cute watching conner go around to his friends and have them sign his paper!

Conner was showing daddy how to play a game at school.

I had to add this picture of conner and his best friend, jordan. I just loved her classic look on her face when I took this picture. It made me laugh sooo hard. I love how conner is all smiles..but she is a typical girl with her little smirk. gotta love it:

We are very proud of you little conner nonner! We are soo excited to start the next adventure of first grade with you!

We also cannot forget this cute little boooooger
who also graduated from his preschool class: I am soo going to miss this preschool sooo much. I highly recommend the high schools "teens and tots" program. It is soo awesome.

The teenagers give each kid an award for the year and little gavin received the most likely to be the next "tony hawk" award. I was laughing pretty hard because it fits his personality to the "T"!
gavin getting his awesome award!

Gavin loved having his teenage buddys! (these girls taught him throughout the school year!) they were so sad to hear that gavin is not going to be able to return. (I sure hope this program exists in utah)

Gavin and his favorite teacher Sara(she is the one is charge! We love her!)

Gavin and his best friend Olson. These two boys are two years apart but they are inseparable. They had so much fun in preschool together. I just loved this picture!

And yes..that is my little boy in the middle of the graduation attempting to stand on his head for everyone to see! (gotta love this kid)

Anyhow, I have soo much more to write about: Stay tuned:...more to come: our trip to utah with some EPIC stories and some EPIC PICS to follow!

"Love you to the moon" and other ramblings!

2010-06-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

(photo was taken on crazy sock day)

I had to write this down because it truly melted my heart. Today I got home from work. I wanted to just sit and veg and snuggle and hug my boy. I said to gavin, "I love you to the moon and back." He looked at me..and (i could tell he was thinking), then he said, "Mommy, I love you to the stop sign and back."

And that melted my heart. I love that the stop sign was the furthest thing he thought of. I could tell he was computing in his little brain how far that was for him.

And that by itself made my day!

Well...that was not the only thing that made my day...I am pretty sure the fact that I was able to get out of my ticket today helped also.

I was running late to work. My friend sent me a text to see if I could cover her shift for her. I got the text and called her at 925 this am. Since i had dinked around this morning I hadn't yet showered or gotten ready. Crazy mode 101 kicked in. I needed to be to work, ready with my child, lunch in hand for my boy..all by 1000. I knew I would be like a chicken with my head cut off. I showered, dressed, and had my hubby help get gavins lunch all ready..I knew i had to be out the door by 950.

I knew that I would be a little bit late so, I had asked my friend to call and let the supervisor know i would be there but, I may be just a little bit late. I got into the car at 10:03. I was totally impressed by by speedy getting ready and out the door in such a timely fashion. I was proud that i did it quick and got out the door. BUT.. In my hurry,I left my cordless headset at home. I always forget it, but I figured I was just hurrying into work, so it would be fine.

I pull out of my neighborhood and get my cell and dial my buddy to make sure she had let work know i would be there..just not right at 1000. I wanted to make sure so that i wouldn't have to make the call in to them. As i was got the phone to my ear, I see car. SH.(my way of swearing without swearing)..IT IS A COP!.

He saw the whole thing. Me: pick up ...dial..and get on the phone. I knew he saw me so I quickly get off and set my phone in the cup holder. I knew he was going to pull me over because he immediately flipped a u turn to follow me. But he didn't pull me over immediately. He followed me for about 7 minutes. I thought..huh..look at that..then right before I entered my work parking lot...the lights on his car turn on.
SH.(again my way of swearing with swearing)..Crap..I knew he decided to pull me over.

He gets to the car. I had my licence all ready for him and the first thing I did was apologize. I knew I was on my phone. I let him know what i was doing being on the cell phone. I just wanted to make sure he knew i wasn't lying and I was being totally honest. He continued his procedure of the whole registration and insurance stuff. I get him the registration and license. As he is running my info, my child in the seat behind me asks if i am going to jail. I quickly assure him i am not and just tell him everything will be ok.

I then cannot find my insurance card. SH..again..I was a little panicked because I knew I had put the new one in the car..I just couldn't find it. I politely ask the officer if I could call my hubby and see if he might know where it is. He says I can. So I call jesse

ME: "hey babe..hows it going...ummm do you know where our insurance card is for the car?"
Jesse:"ya it is in the glove box." "why"
ME:"ummm..well i got pulled over and i need to show it to the officer."
Jesse:"SHAUNA..R E A L L Y? WHAT happened?"
Me:"ughhh..alright, I found it babe..i love you. I will call u later,..when i am not driving and i am at work."
I hung up b4 he could respond.

Thankfully, I finally found the insurance card. PHEW! The officer looks at everything and runs me in the system.
He walks back to my car. He lets me GO!! YAY! WITHOUT A TICKET! DOUBLE YAY! I was soo relieved. Getting a ticket would have really put a damper in my day..yet along my checking account.
I tell him thank you soo much. I am relieved and little gavinator is relieved I am not going to jail. I then proceed on with my day and get to work..I guess if I was 30 min late..at least i didn't get a ticket, RIGHT! Phew..

As I sit and type, I breath a HUGE sigh of relief. I just sit and think about how much it made me smile when gavin told me he loved me to the stop sign and back!:)

Full Swing

2010-05-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

So, of course spring has begun. Things have bloomed. The Grasses are growing at unbelievable rates. The grass is sooo GREEN...and.. because the freakn rains have not stopped.(literally)
Proof of what the skyes are looking like:

LAst year it had already warmed up soo fast..We had soo many really hot games. In fact i haven't been to one game this year yet where i am not all bundled up. I love the smell of freshly cut grass and fresh rain. I love hearing the birds chirp. I especially love the smell of being at a ball game. I love watching kids play sports. They CRACK ME UP! Like alot. It is the best thing EVER.

It seems, I of course am super late in posting about one of our favorite spring pastimes. BASEBALL! Well..i should reword that.. We love watching the con man play baseball.

I am not a huge fan of watching professional baseball..i mean, it is fun..but it can get pretty boring and LONG.I love being at the games live, but for sure, i do not have the time or patience of watching them on tv.

COnner's team name this year is the lightning bolts. I was laughing because last year he was the youngest by a good 3 years. Most of the players were 7 turning 8. This year he is actually one of the oldest. It is soo nice seeing the skills he has developed in one short year. I love that he is number 9!

A little ironic ..since that was his mommys number when she played sports! He is by far the fastest on the team. He will totally lap the runner in front of him like it is nothing(hehe he gets this from his mommy). He freakin has an arm and can REALLY throw that ball. The coach comments all the time about the arm he has. It is soo funny to watch, because we are trying to help him perfect his throw and aim...and sometimes he throws it sooo hard that it surpises everyone in the stands. Who knows, maybe he will be a pitcher in the future. He has become an AMAZING hitter..for reals..he can literally hit the crap out of that ball. (he gets this from his mommy) He within the last 3 games has figured out how to slide and loves doing it(he also gets this trait from his mommy.) My favorite thing about watching him play is he ALWAYS has a SMILE from ear to ear. The others parents always comment at how cute it is to see him always smiling. So it makes me happy that he is having as much fun as we are watching him. I loved playing softball and soccer growing up so that fact that my boys loves both of those things just makes me the happiest little mama EVER! I soo cannot wait until the gavinator is old enough for the rec sports. He is always wanting to be just like his big brother. I love it. I love the fact that I just want my kids to do what makes them happy...and so far baseball and soccer makes him happy:) hooray!
This year we just happened to luck out again and have red be the team color again. I love the color red and i am happy that i didnt have to buy anything special to match the uniform..we already had everything from last year! woot! love when u can save money!

I love looking at these pics of my baby boy! I may be a little bias..but i just think he is just the handsomest little fellow out there on that field.

(In his ready position 1.take note of the sunglasses. what a stud)

(In his ready position 2 getting set up to get that ball when it was hit)

(In his ready to get that kid out position! woot woot)

(i love him in the catcher gear..I think it is just too cute...too bad..conners favorite base to play is First)

(Love it when he slides. I makes me laugh because conner doesnt like that he cant slide into first..but every other base he makes sure he slides)
first picture..harder to see him slide since it is so far away.

(The closer up version)

(yes that is my child running ever so happily with a sucker in his hand)(shesh i didnt realize that..ahahaha)

And i had to include this little boooger..i just love him so. I cannot wait until we get to watch him play too!

And last but not least...this is my favorite pic EVER!
(I love this picture of my boys. Lil gavinator is always right by his brother side waiting until conner hits. This picture just make me smile!)

My Favorite Job in the WOrld!

2010-05-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

I love being a MOM! In honor of mothers day, I wanted to write about all the things I love about motherhood.

****I LOVE LOVE LOVE the two little bundles of joy that were sent to me.

****I love little gavinator's sporadic, I never know when they are coming kisses. I
love that when he does kiss my cheek he tries to be soo soft and gentle. Then, after I get his special kiss on my cheek, he asks me if it made my heart smile!

****i love the special way we say i love you to each other. WE use a really deep voice and say "I love LUUUU". the boys get a kick out of it every time

****I love that my con man is sooo sensitive to others feelings. At night we do family snuggle time on the couch. Gavin of course is a TOTAL momma's boy and has to be planted on my lap. I think he does this so he can play with my hair. The sad part is, alot of times it takes jesse begging gavin to sit my him. Gavin will usually go snuggle for about 5 minutes with daddy..until he realizes jesse's hair is too short to play with! ahahaha. Conner doesn't ever want to make his daddy feel left out, so he always plants himself right in between jesse and I. The cute part is he always has one hand on jesse and one hand on me. He gets as close to jesse as possible..but he also always has a hold of me too! It melts my heart.

****I love being being the one they run too when they are hurt. I love soothing an owie with a little kiss, and then suddenly it is all better

****I love being that order for us to be a mother it requires us to be selfless. This is something i LOVE!

*****I love hearing my "babies" (though they are not so much babies anymore)sit and talk and giggle and be best friends.

***I love having my sweet conner show me all his AMAZING CREATIONS he does. IT could be anything from his totally amazing lego creations(which let me tell u..this kids got some talent for Lego's. He can build the most amazing battle "star wars ships". I think they even turn out better than the ones you buy in the kits. He is also suuper creative. When he gets his homework projects that require him to really think outside of the box with his own ideas...they BLOW ME AWAY! he can create some amazing things. I will do a future post about some of these super amazing creations that i want to make sure i document.

****ill admit it..i even occasionally love the squabbling the boys do...it makes me laugh to see how fast they can go from being the best of friends to mortal enemies within a split second!..but when it is all said and done..they forgive soo easily and go back to being the best of friends.

***I love the minute conner wakes up, he could go hours without eating..and be fine..but the minute gavin wakes up..he has to have food RIGHT THEN. The minute little gavins eyes open..he needs his "breakfreast"

*** i love love love the way gavin sings to me ALL THE TIME! he loves to sing. He will be anywhere and just belt out his favorite songs (aka. iron man, batman, starwars are 3 of the most popular ones he belts out)..there is also his favorite primary song and the special mothers day song he sang for me. They melt my heart.

This is how the mothers day song went that he sang to me:
There's a special lady that I know, I like to call her mommy
m-o-m-m-y m-o-m-m-y m-o-m-m-y I like to hug my mommy!
I love how he will sing it to me a billion times a day!

***I love kissing my boys cheeks every night before bed at least a million times. They have the bestessst kissing cheeks EVER! And I also love how I can whisper in their ear how much I love them and no matter how deep asleep they are..i always get a quiet i love you back!

Oh man i could go on for days about all the reasons i love being a mommy!

I want to also take a second, and thank my super, amazing, awesomely, Rad, MOMMY!Thank you mom for being such a "special lady that i know, i like to call her mommmy...m-o-m-m-y..m-o-m-m-y m-o-m-m-y...i like to hug my mommy" He hehe..i thought i could be as cute as gavin and attempt to sing that to you! Mom, thank you for being the best mom i could ever have. U are such an amazing example to me! I really cannot put into words how much I love you. Happy mothers day mom!

And one more shout out to my super amazing MIL! Dayna..I am one lucky girl to have such an amazing mil like you! I am soo glad that we get to have that amazing relationship. I really do love and appreciate all u do for me and my family! happy mothers day Dayna!!!

I am soo grateful that my hubby made this a special mothers day for me! I meant soo MUCH TO ME. Thank you jesse for keeping my spirits high on this mothers day! I know that i am going to be facing aLOT of change. Things have been quite stressful and not easy ...but what I do know, is that I LOVE BEING A MOMMY!

Whats your favorite part about being a mommy?

"The Friend" Part TWO

2010-05-04T15:05:00.001-07:00

I just had to imclude these pics that conner came home with today. They were in his backback as a suprise. I just wish i could have had a picture of the color of red conner turned when we asked him what the picture was. We then had to hold back our laughter as he covered his face with his backpack so we wouldnt see how badly he was blushing. It was PRICELESS!

the little things wrapped up in tape are seashells!

I love how she drew them "holding hands"!

"The Friend" PART ONE

2010-05-03T15:06:00.000-07:00

Conner has this little friend in his class. . They are the best of friends at school. His teacher comments all the time at how cute they are together and how well they play. I hear constantly about how he wants to have play dates with this little friend..

here is his best school friend:

jordan:)

SInce the beginning of school year, he and jordan have hit it off. They have alot in common. They both just gravitated towards each other. The teacher tells me they are both the oldest in his class. They both breeze through their work assigments b4 anyone else does. They love to see who can get their work done the fastest without having any mistakes. They both love love love to be around each other. I hear from conners teacher that they are unseperable. I have asked conner over and over again if he has a "crush" on jordan and of course he tells me NO! ahahaha..I just dont believe him. I beg to differ with some funny stunts that i have cought him doing. I just had to document these stories cause one day he will die of laughter, that and they make me laugh too.

What conner does on occasion if u ask him about jordan:

This is what i found in conners back pack the other day. I am always finding little drawings and notes in his backback that she has made for him. I was laughing about the fact that he he wrote this and tried to sneek it in without me knowing.

conner and jordan:

He just glows when he talks about her. He gets sooo excited to see her at school. Watching him, it made me do some of my own reminicing from when i was little.

It brought me back to when i was in 3rd grade. I had the biggggest crush on this boy in school. We liked each other cause we were both the fastest runners in school! ahahaha..the memories of my 3rd grade "love", I called it! GOod ol' ,Kunito Hashimoto, yes that is his name .. Oh the memories..in fact, I considered him my "BF" from 3rd to like 6th graden. I considered my "boyfriend" one of my closet buddies. I guess i must also mention i did kiss him in third grade ...yes u heard it..i had my first kiss in 3rd grade. (sorry mommy!)(but u already knew that) I remember one of our "dates". We went with his mom, and we saw the movie "fivel goes west". Oh the excitment I had with my 3rd grade crush. I remember being sooo excited when we would play and hang out. I remember racing as fast as i could to his house and he would do the same to mine. oh the joys of all the memories from our first little "crushes".

Now fast forward to my little boy, COnner. Back in Nov my parents came out to spend the holiday with us. One day, after school, gavin came into my room holding half of a $50.00 bill. I had a double take looking at it. My brain thought there was no way it could be $50.00..I mean $50 bucks..that is a heck of alot of money for my little man to be carrying. I don't even have that money to my name, so i had no clue where he got it. I asked him. I could tell he didnt want me to take it. Gavin breaks the silence by saying, "conner gave it to me."

I call conner in for a little mommy son conference. Conner is fidgeting. I can tell he is not telling me the whole true story. He told me he found the money, and he tore it in half and left the other half on his desk at school. I FREAK OUT! (I know, i know)..this is where my finicially stressed self kicks in, and i freak out. I mean, I really didnt have 50 bucks..yet alone where on EARTH Would he get this 50 bucks. I call his teacher. No answer. I email his teacher. No answer. SO, needless to say I go back to conner to try to find out the REAL STORY! He broke down and started crying. He took the money. He then tore it in half. He then gave half to his brother and then he brought the other half to give to jordan at school.

That evening we had many lessons on telling the truth. That at least was a success. I called my dad just bawling. How on earth could my son do this! How could he...until my dad had to snap me back into reality. Conner has no concept of money. He doesnt know $1.00 bill from a 50.00. In his eyes, he thinks it is just a dollar. My dad calmes me, and tells me to not get so angry with him. He says this is a good learning lesson for conner. I decide to get some sleep that night. I would go to the school and talk to his teacher the next morning. I really wanted to have her talk to jordan to figure this out. The next morning, as i dropped conner off..his teacher came running. She had gotten my emails but had been in meeting all night and couldnt get back to me. But she did say that she hadnt known about any of this until jordan and her mom showed up at school the day b4. They had showed up after school and she though that was kinda strange. Then lil jordan handed Mrs. Haynes the torn $50 bill. Jordans mom said that conner had given this to jordan as a gift and that she needed to get it back to him. Thank goodness for a parent with good sense. It was soo nice to be able to get that $50.00 bill back. I am soo thankful that banks accept torn bills and they will replace them for you. Conner wrote letters and called his grandparents with a very tearfelt apology. I knew he felt horrible. I was soo happy that it worked out.

Now that it is all said and done, Jesse and I laugh about this all the time. I mean really.. all the boy wanted to do was to try to impress the girl. And the fact that he shared the other half with his brother, made us laugh even harder. At least, he wasnt being selfish and he was sharing really well. ahahahaha! I am just soo glad that we can finially all laugh about it. I have a feeling this is the start to many many many many more stories about my lil handsome man and one of his many "crushes!".

Catching up on Easter 2010

2010-04-18T16:26:00.000-07:00

Our Easter was suuuper low key this year. We hung around all day in our PJs. It was soo awesome. It was nice not having to do our usual Sunday rushing around the house to get out the door on time for church. We got to stay in and cozy up on the couch and listen to the AMAZING TALKS that were given at conference. Later that day, we dyed our eggs, because the week b4 had been insane, and we didn't have time to get to them. The kids of course loved every minute of it..even the tired gavinator had a good time ..he waited soo patiently playing with his hair until the eggs were the color he wanted.(he plays with his hair when he gets tired)

We only had one cute boy shoot the "how long is the color going to take look"

But over all he kids were sooo happy that their hard work in choosing colors and what to draw on their eggs. I loved how they turned out! I love that they were soo serious in which color to use and watching them figure out what they were going to draw! It was hilarious. As long as gavins egg didn't end up pink...they were happy. (gavin is strongly opposed to pink)

That night we played trouble (star wars version). The kids soo loved this game..i was not sure with the combination of it being a starwars version or if it was because we got to stay up late to play, but they LOVED IT!
I mean look at this boys face when he saw it on the table from the Easter bunny that morning..

We even got in a little Easter egg hunt of our own living room..Of course this was a hit:(thanks to the cute Easter bunny man in our house who hid them in what my boys thought were the coolest places EVER)

I love that lil gav found one and shared it with his brother:

And last but not least...I had to include some of our super cute easter pics in their easter outfits..(note: we took these today b4 church since we didnt have to get dressed all up easter sunday). The pictures will be in order of how they cooperated :)
(take note of the faces on the boys..ahaha..either it was bright or they had the sillies..that is usally how pic taking goes at my house.)

But even with their sillies ...I love my little stud muffins..i mean really..how could u not...just look at them!:)

The CON Man!!!

The Gavinator!!!

Spiffy Spring Cleaning

2010-04-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

So the last one and a half weeks have been filled with MAJOR DE JUNKING! I mean MAJOR! My supper suuper Awesome MIL came out from Cedar city to help. And, I must say I am soo grateful that she will just get in there and help wherever. I am soo glad she is not afraid to work. I was all geared up to conquer my first ever garage sale.

Here my list of my insane prepping that had to take place in order toget ready for this beast.

*getting rid of 90% of my playroom..toys..furniture...more toys..and did I mention how many more toys.
*switched out my dressers and put them in the boys room.(At least now their bedroom can FINALLY LOOK COMPLETE..)
*emptied boys old dressers so i could sell them in the G sale
*dejunked boys room
*Dejunked Guest bedroom
* dejunked my bedroom. This is a HUGE FEET. We Put up the uglyish dressers I had stashed away. I had gotten them free sometime ago, since I gave the boys my dressers, I needed something to hold my clothes in.
*Dejunked the entire upstairs (which meant going through every room..every closet...EVERYTHING)There was not a square inch we didn't get our hand's into.
*moved furniture to and fro
*went through mass mounds of clothes to sell and also price
*sorted through a bazillion shoes of all sizes to sell
*spent hours and hours pricing things out for the Gsale
*made signs..and put them up
*did i mention how many hours we spent just sorting and pricing things out
*cleaned out the garage to prep it for the mass amount of stuff that i had accumulated to sell.
*organized the garage with all our loot
*made a g sale Ad for craiglist.
And all this was done in just 3 VERY VERY VERY long days. We probably did a months worth of work in 3 days.

(the "loot" all in the garage.. it just needed to be organized)

And like the ole saying says "if you build it...they will come". I found this to be true.
The first garage sale was a huge success. We sold, between Friday and sat, about 2/3rds of what we put out. The only low part was the "poop stain" (use this instead of a curse word) who actually stole from our garage sale. And what torques(use this instead of pisses, me mommy and mil are not huge fan's of the word pisses) me off even more about that low life, was now we cant sell what i was trying to for the price i was trying to, because it is missing its main component. Some people I tell you.. I mean i have had and am in some pretty bad and hard times..but i would never steal from a garage sale..i mean i try to knickle and dime them but NEVER would i steal. Then Sadly..(I am sure from all the stress and lack of sleep and endless hours I put into this and everything else i do in life)...I ended up with some nasty illness so that kinda put a damper in weekend. Trying to run the Garage sale with a fever and a horrible sore throat is not my idea of fun.

My poor Mil has had to deal with not only the above stuff this week but also these things as well. I think she deserves a trophy.

* sickies.
*me and gavin whiny with fevers
* a certain little boy who kept us up ALL night sat night with a horrible cough/fever
*me with no make up on for what feels like a thousand days in a row.
*me with no make-up
*an insane case of pink eye with a vengeance
*me with no makeup some more, then my face broke out like crazy due to all my stress..so i am sure that this is not the best combo.
*more whining due to the sore throat of mine not going away, and my eyes that were so red and itchy and gooey. Last night, I wanted to poke them out, which tells u how bad the itchiness/soreness was.
*me with a few occasional melt downs due to my insane stress load.
*me finially putting my white flag up, and I got my arse into the DR. last night was the last night i could handle of my stupid illness. I am going to knock this strep throat and pink eye out.
*trying to deal with me and dejunking this entire house while not feeling well= grumpy me
*lots of dejunking decisions on whether we keep or not keep something
*lots of strong willed people in this house..me..jesse..the kids..to name a few
*lots of time being "caged" as I call it in the house
*more dejunking of the downstairs
*and she will have to endure another insane few days as we try to get ready for Garage sale #2...

We can do this again...and this time my antibiotics should kick in, so I should be a garage saleing machine but this time not a sick one!

(proof of our our work)

ITS ON!!!!

Cant get enough part 2!

2010-04-01T11:42:00.001-07:00

I mean really!!

Cant get enough !

2010-04-01T08:17:00.001-07:00

So lately, it has seemed like life is throwing us constant curve balls. There will come a time when I will be able to freely talk about these curve balls, but for now they are all still weighing heavily on my mind. With life, comes trials. As part of Heavenly Father's plan, all people experience adversity during their lifetime. Trials, disappointments, sadness, sickness, and heartache are a difficult part of life, but with the help of the Lord they can lead to spiritual growth, refinement, and progress.

With trials comes your ability on how you handle these trials. I choose to handle mine with everything I got..though not easy and at times it is VERY HARD. I know that one day i will look back and i will be able to say I made it through...I cannot wait to for the day when we all can say we have made it through our trials.

I feel like I have rolled with the punches pretty well, but there does come a time when i just feel like I am only human. There are times when I feel like I am not coming up for air...but i always know I will never be alone. I have a huge amazingly supportive family. I love them all soo much.

I also have been blessed with some amazing friends! I know that i can turn to any of these people, and I know that they will have my back! They would do anything to help!
I guess you could say I have been in a "funk" for some time, if u want to call it that. I mean "funk" in my world can have alot of different definitions. But anyhow..i just wanted to let those I am close to know, that I have not meant to exclude certain family or friends from my life. I, when times get stressful, can tend to "pull away" a little, so i feel like I am not burdening others...I know it is silly and not logical..but it is something i am trying to move past.

I guess i just watned to say Thank you friends, and Thank You family for not giving up on me! I love you all soo much!

I don't know what i would do without these people! I love you guys!

I have some amazing friends here in P-town! Moving here 7 years ago, we came to this state not knowing anybody or anyone. We did not have family here. I do know, that I have met some AMAZING people here! They have become "my family". These people are so amazing! I wish I could clone them, and pass them out to everyone. Everyone needs friends like these! They have watched my kids grow up! I have watched their kids grow up! We have sooo MANY AMAZING MEMORIES! They have been our "family" away from family. You each have been my rock when I have needed it. You have cheered me up when i have been sad. You make me laugh. You have helped me through some insanely stressful times. No matter what, you are there. You help me get through my crazy days. You are all constantly by my side...through thick and thin. I get teary eyed just writing about how blessed I am for having the bestest friends and family in the world!

I love you guys! Thank you for just being you..and thank you for helping me be a better person. It is this group of people (u know who u are)that will never know how I could ever "repay" them for their generosity and love! They are the BEST! I am soo grateful that I have met these people! Thank you friends! Thank you for being the BESTEST FRIENDS I could ask for! Thank you for becomming my FAMILY!

ok that is about all the mushy stuff I could handle for know. It is time to tackle the day...and unfortuntely it will be filled with the neverending pile of laundry!:)

Mr. C's Gnarley Eye!

2010-03-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

So this morning I woke up to my conner nonner running in my room because his eye had swollen shut... literally..i wish i had a picture of it..It was gnarly looking this morning.

Jesse and I asked what was wrong, and he said he didn't know, but that it was hurting. We got some cold packs on it, and decided he would need to been seen today. Thankfully the cold packs did their job, and the swelling went down ALOT. While applying the ice I kept I asked him if anything happened to his eye. He thought about it, and told me last night at club sport he might of hurt it..he told me he was playing basketball and as he was trying to shoot he poked his eye pretty bad. Of course he didn't tell anyone about it. I told him it would have been nice to hear about something like that the night it had happened. I knew it hurt..how could it not..it looked pretty painful. Too bad we didnt take any pics this morning when it looked "really cool" totally swollen shut. The doc told us he did indeed scratch it pretty good and because of the scratch, he not only has the pain of that but it also turned into pink eye. He said the two of those together makes for a pretty sore eye. conner nonner wanted me to take pics and post a blog about his eye so he can see how cool it looks.

anyhow.. here are some cool pics of his eye..and the pretty cool scratch at the top...
Dont be alarmed..he may look possesed in these pics...and i know they look kinda creepy, but it does show how white the one eye is, compared to how red the other is. The really dark red is where he scratched it.

The right eye..nice and white..the way it should be...

the left eye...this is the one he poked.

he wanted to show me his tough guy pose....

I am sure glad it will heal and that he didnt scratch his cornea....that is one huge blessing when u dont have any health insurance...it could have been worse and thank goodness it wasnt.

Toothpaste Anyone?

2010-03-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

So this morning while I was enjoying my day off by cleaning my lovely house. I was waiting for little gavinators ride to come get him for preschool. I had asked him to go brush his teeth and then I got back to cleaning my kitchen. I finally looked at the time and realized that lil gav had been gone a LONG TIME brushing his teeth. He usually will brush...swish his mouth wash and then run back down to keep me company. Well I called out to him and then he came down.. I freaked OUT!!!

He had toothpaste ALLL OVER HIM!...well at least it didn't get in his hair..it was just all over his clothes. I asked him what he did, and he told me he didn't remember. "Ya right", he knew he did something naughty but i could was trying not to laugh because he was trying to sweet talk me right out of going upstairs to see the damage. .

I wish i had time to look at what the war zone might look like but then i hear the doorbell, and realize his ride for school is here. I quickly get him REdressed for school. I wish i had gotten a picture of the clothes.

He leaves, and I realize that my whole house smells like toothpaste. So off to school he went, and off to the bathroom I went. Its a good thing he was at school.

AT first I was sooo mad. REALLY?? Really?... The whole room upon walking in smells like this lovely minty freshness. Then, I see the towels on the ground that clearly he had used to try to "clean" up his mess. They are covered in toothpaste. I see the sink that he had soo nicely finger painted creations all over..and then i see the lil piles of toothpaste that he spilled in the sink...LOVELY..just LOVELY!

I then started to laugh.. that makes it another good reason that he was at school. I am soo glad he didn't see me react to this mess with laughs. I don't want him to think this can happen on a daily basis, because mommy "thought it was funny"...but it was funny to see that even though my "baby" has alot of grown up moments lately...this reminded me that he is still only 3..and he still has those naughty I just need to get into mischief moments! I soo love this mischief maker!

I had to snap some shots of him when he got home from school with him by his mess. Though, i was not showing him how funny i thought it was, I did give the normal mom lecture and explained why this is not ok..

The pictures will explain it all..I went in there ..he is pointing to what he had done,...he then rolls his eyes at me when I tell him that this is not ok to do...and then he give me one of those super cute faces that i couldn't resist snapping a shot of..

I just wish the pictures did Justice to the mess.

Ps: don't let ur eyes think we actually tiled out bathroom pink...no we didn't...it came that way....i know, i know, It is Horrific..One day it will be replaced.

TEN YEARS !

2010-03-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

(sorry the pics are crazy and not sized right..they were the only ones i could fit into the computer scanner and actually got them to work..i love being computer stupid!!)

It was February 29, 2000....Ten years ago...on a cold but beautiful sunny day...! We have been through sooooo much in our little 10 years of marriage. I must say, even when the times are ROUGH....and we feel like giving in... I realized that we still do have each other. Through the good and the bad...and the happy and the sad. If we can get through all that we have these last ten, and we survived..then I know without a doubt we will get through whatever lies ahead. Thank you for never giving up on me! Thank you for lifting me up when I needed you.

10 years!!!!

Happy anniversary Jesse....thank u for saying "yes" 10 years ago.

ALso.. Thank you for asking me to marry you again last night on our date...It made my heart melt....I know I am not an easy person to live with. I know that there are times when I am just a big pain in the butt....but....I do thank you for loving me no matter what!

As I sit here remembering our day, I wanted you to read the words of "our" song that u sang to me that day....

When the rain is blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I could offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love

When the evening shadows and the star appear
And there is no one to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love

I know you haven't made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong
I've known it from the moment that we met
There's no doubt in my mind where you belong

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue
I'd go crawling down the avenue
There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love

The storms are raging on rolling sea
And on the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
You ain't seen nothing like me yet

There ain't nothin' that I wouldn't do
Go to the ends of the earth for you
Make you happy make your dreams come true
To make you feel my love

How real these lyrics are!!! I love you babe! Happy Anniversary!

Must be My boy...

2010-01-31T15:46:00.000-08:00

I just woke up from a very relaxing Sunday nap...It was GREAT! the first nap that i have been able to take without the help of melatonin! it was nice.

I proceed to hang out in the computer room..hubby and the con man are hanging out doing father son video game time.

Anyhow..i get the privilege of having lil gavinator climb up my computer chair and then ,("blast" his term) or "jump" (in my terms),off my chair. He climbs up the back of my chair, giggling his little brains out and them jumps as far as he can. I am sitting here thinking of how good i really do have it. I like nothing more then to see my kids have this much joy in their eyes. He is soo happy...it is pure happiness. I for one second start to envy what little u have to do to make him happy. My kids are such great strengths for me. Especially when going through some hard times. Today, I needed a reminder, that Its "the simple things" that make it worth it...it makes my trials not go away..but at least for the moment, i am able to step back, and have joy.

As he is scaling the back of my chair, as if he is spider man...I hear these "noises"...Then with evertstep he makes..a little noice escapes. It then "clicks" in my brain that he is farting..and with every step he is making, a new little "fart" comes out....That is when we both start rollin...we are laughing soo hard, i cannot recover...

....And then we both get to experience joy and happiness...we are both laughing soo hard and soo long i think i need to stop typing and go find my inhaler...i am pretty sure i just gave myself an asthma attack!

Lots to Catch up on!

2010-01-09T14:37:00.000-08:00

I am not sure why the blogging got put on the back burner. I guess with all the craziness of the holidays..having my family come and visit.(which was super duper fun)...and then heading out of town for Christmas I guess I have seriously slacked. I need to catch up on so much! In the meantime..i promise i will catch up eventually i just had to post this picture of the boys..

We went and saw Santa before we left town. The boys had been looking forward to it. Mr. C was telling the gavintaor all about santa and how cool he was. Lil Gavin was super excited. I mean the kid had been talking ForEVER about seeing santa and telling him what a good boy he had been. He was also super excited to ask for his "Batcave"!

We finally got down to see santa. On the way i was thinking that since lil gavin is now 3 he most likely would not scream on santa's lap. It actually kinda made me sad in a way...my baby is 3. I had a flashback from when conner was 3 and we saw santa and he LOVED him. He couldnt wait! I kinda think that 3 years old is the time when the kids really get into Santa Claus. The boys talked about him all the time. They could not wait. They were getting soo antsy waiting in line. They even drew him picture's of what they wanted...
Mr.C's

The gavinators

When it was the boys turn, lil G nervously looked at me..then lil gavinator started to hold my leg and hide behind it. Me, being the awesome parent that i am, pick the lil man up and set him on Santa's lap. Santa starts to chuckle... And well...sadly the pictures say it all!

I then went through memory lane with our pictures and ran into this from christmas time 2008:
Too funny!

And i could not leave out Mr. C from 2005! Whats even better is he didn't believe me when i told him he used to cry on santa's lap too...so when he saw this picture he started laughing and told me he was Mr. Crying pants!

A little something for my Man!

2009-12-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

This one is for you baby!! The boys and I wanted to give you your own special birthday Post!!!

We love you and hope that you have a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

You comfort us when we need your love and warmth....You hug us when we need cheering up...

Your lots of fun to hang with.....

You help remind us to stay on the straight and narrow path......

The boys say you are their absoulte FAVOIRTE SUPER HERO...though joey does come in a close second......

We are grateful for the hard work you to do support our family...(for our readers: He can make people's bathrooms and kitchens go from "FUGLY", (that is short for "F" and u-g-l-y(not the real bad word)..to ABOsOUTelY beautimass...) (sorry i really do have better b4 and after pictures..just cant find them at the moment)

We just love to have you around....

You are the best daddy and husband EVER! We love you Jesse/Daddy, and we hope u have a wonderful birthday!!

For the Love of the Game

2009-11-18T15:10:00.000-08:00

So back in the day, I used to play high school soccer! I loved it! I have SOOOO MANY fond memories from way back when. I love soccer! It has always been a huge part of me and i have wanted for a long time to get back into it.

A girl i know signed up to play on a women's indoor soccer team. They were needing more players. I talked to J about me playing again. Pros are, it is super fun. It would help kick my butt and get it back into shape. It would give me a small "outlet" and escape from all the everyday stresses and crazy life that i live. Cons: I was soo out of shape. Did i mention i was soo out of shape. Running is not an easy thing to do for me as I have reached my old age, but I was confident this is as good of an excuse as ever to get back into it.

So i decided to go with the pros side and sign up. This would help me get back into running again. I have a huge love hate relationship with running. I love when you hit that "runners high" and i love the feeling i get AFTER I AM DONE. But during the moment i hate every minute of it. It is torture for me. I literally have to tell my self....one more step...one more step...you can do this...and so forth until i have hit my limit where i cannot go anymore. Not to mention i have yet to reach this "runners high" that i feel like came soo easily back in the olden days of highschool. It seems like it is harder to get there the older i get.

So we had our first game and I was soo pumped. I have soo missed this sport. I just felt this inner demon within me. My head knew exactly what to do but my body would not keep up with my head. It was a fight the first game to get back into it. And of course i suffered the soreness and stiffness that follows those lovely soccer games. But i pushed on. I kept up on the exercising. I kept up with running as much as my sore stiff legs would allow and hit the gym the other days. I was finally started to feel like i could actually do this again. The games have been soo fun and i have actually surprised myself with little things that have come back to me to help me in the game. Plus I love the feeling when that perfect pass gets set up for you to blow the ball past the goalie.

Last night we had another game. I decided I would wrap my awful shin splints up before the game just like i did back in high school. My husband has told me that maybe that I should take it easy for one game and not overdue it because i needed to give them time to heal. I on the other hand cannot go out half way on the soccer field. I have to give it my all and then i end up suffering the consequences for a few days thereafter. I should of maybe listened to him. I knew my shins splints were pretty bad but the tape really really does help them a ton. I felt renewed last night and was pretty pumped to play again!

We were in the final 5 minutes. I am going for the ball with the other player. The ball is up in the air and I jumped up to trap it and come down hard. Sadly, as I came down. my ankle snapped to the side. I landed hard on the side of my foot not the sole of my foot. I felt a crack and the pain was gnarly. I sat there stunned for a minute and realize that as i try to move my foot it is screaming for me to stop. It is hurting soo bad. I was sooo bummed. No..not now ..I do not have time in my crazy life to have a foot injury and this cannot be happening. I get helped off the field by my teammates and start icing. The pain is soo bad. I see a small spot off the side of my foot start to get swollen and poke through my sock. I am soo scared it is broken. Life then turns into a Chinese fire drill. I have a friend help drive me home with the two kids in the back. J leaves his job to meet me at home. We meet J at the house and find out we have only 15 minutes to get to the urgent care b4 they close. I really did not and could not afford any type of ER bills. I still haven't seen the damage from conners surgery last month. J gets us all loaded up and we head into urgent care to get xrays. The pain sucks soo bad. The throbbing is making me nauseous. I am pissed(very angry, sorry mom) cause i really do not have a life where I can afford to be out of commission. I work 3 jobs..i have two busy boys with two busy little schedules and frankly being couch bound is not my idea of fun. This sucks. I have family comming into town in a week...my house is a sight in of itself and i really really cannot have this be happening.

We get the doc to finally see us, and we get the xrays. Diagnosis: Not broken!

Phew...i am soo thankful it is not broken. I was soo worried when i heard and felt that crackle when i landed on it. I did tear two of the tendons and sprain it. Bad news...the doc informs me breaking it would have been alot less painful and probably easier on the healing process. I also get to sport this ridiculous looking walking cast.

I also get to be on crutches until i can apply pressure. I am not sure how long that will take, but i hope not that long...Then once i am comfortable doing so, I can work up to walking on it again. I really am bummed. Once i get to walking, I can then ditch the "awesome" foot gear, and trade it in for a brace. That way I can wear shoes again. There goes me trying to get back into shape. There goes the million and ten things i needed to get done...there goes driving for the time being.

Well...it has not yet been a day. I have had a huge amount of help and support from my friends out here. They have been sooo awesome. I cannot thank them enough for all the sacrifice they have done to help with serving me. I am not one to ask for help very easily. This morning one of my good friends just showed up without me knowing and started getting the boys ready for school. She dressed them..got them breakfast and even ran a special errand for me. She then stopped in with dinner later this afternoon. My visiting teacher who is also my teammate came by this morning and brought me crutches and more dinner! I was soo excited. To get the crutches and not have to go and buy them is a huge blessing. I no longer had to crawl around the house. Crawling around the house has been no fun. I have a new found admiration for little babies who crawl all over the place. It did not find it fun nor did my knees like the feeling. I could have a little freedom. And to have dinner taken care of is a huge stress relief. It was such an answer to my prayers. And all the phone calls to check in on me have helped soo much. I am soo extremely thankful for all my friends and all they do for us out here. They truly are our family out here and I am soo grateful. And i must say how grateful i am for my hubby. He is soo busy and I have not given him any credit for all the hard work he has put forth to helping me too. He has been soo good at picking up the slack that i can no longer do. I am soo greatful for him and for all his patience with me.

I am being optimistic and hoping i can be back up to par in just a few weeks. But we will see. For now i will be taking it easy and learning to adjust my life. I just cant wait to be able to get back to my insanely crazy life again. I also can not wait to get out there on the field again. Soon...hopefully soon.

The Con Mans Surgery 10/14/2009

2009-11-12T10:18:00.001-08:00

(long post: mostly just for my journal use)
Pre surgery:
Getting up and ready in his wonderful hospital gown

Mr. C all tucked away and getting ready to get his "happy juice"..his animal's get to join him in surgery..lucky animal's get to get their tonsils./adenoids out too!
!

Post surgery:

The Con Man was super super brave the day he had to have his surgery. We woke up bright and early to get to the hospital. On our way over he told me that his throat was hurting him really really bad. I felt soo bad for him. He was getting strep again..and this time it was the day of surgery. The Dr told me previously that he has done a ton of surgeries where the children still have strep present..he said that with some kids it doesnt go away and that leaves for no other alternative. I was just grateful he didnt have a fever. That is where they draw the line. They said any fever of 101 and over and surgery would have to be rescheduled. Thank goodness he didnt have a fever! We got to the hospital and when we walked into our room there was this little beanie baby waiting on the bed for conner.

Conner saw on his tag that his name was "seaweed". He was sooo excited that the nurses told him he would get to be conners forever. It also calmed conner that seaweed would be able to join him in the surgery...seaweed also has had recurrent strep throat. Conner did not seem nervous AT ALL! he was soo amazed by everything in the room and wanted to know how everything worked.(this little animal has now become conners favorite lil item to sleep with. He has to have him with him to be able go to sleep!)
We got him into his awesome hospital gown. J and I had been nervous wrecks all night long. We tried really hard to not have it show through..we didnt want to make conner get anxious as well. The Doc came in and chatted with us and he said they would give conner some special "happy juice". This was going to calm him down and get him feeling super mellow. He said it would make him say and do funny things and it would almost be as if he was "drunk". He was telling us all sorts of funny stories about other children and how they reacted on this medicine. I was dying of laughter..it was soo funny to hear. I was curious how Conner would react. Then we found out that he didnt act ANY different. He was still talking up a storm and hadnt seemed in one bit affected by this special"happy juice"

The anesthesiologist came in to check on him. He could not believe that conner had this special cocktail 20 min prior, and that he was completely and totally acting normal! haha figures...they brought in another doc and nurse to check conner..they too were amazed that he didnt act "drunk". They do this to calm the children down so they can Iv them. Since conner didnt react to this at all he would go back to the operating room and they would have to IV him after he was asleep. I was totally fine by that. This poor kid has been through soo much traumatic experiences with needles..and i didnt want to worry him more than he already had been.

I didnt realize how quickly they would rush to get him into the OR. I had to use the ladies room. When I came out, conner was in his bed waiting with the nurse right outside the restroom. J gave him a huge hug and kiss. I was getting ready to hug him and boom the bed was being rolled away from me...he was whisked off to the OR. I froze. I didnt even get to hug and kiss him. I dont even think the nurse realized that i was left standing in the dust. Conner was totally fine going back with them and didnt seem one bit nervous. This didnt help me though. I got soo emotional at that point i just felt the tears stream down my face. I was soo worried and i just wished i would have had the time to hug and kiss him before he went. Jesse gave me a big hug and kept reassuring me he would be ok. But i knew deep down he was just as worried as I was.

The doc said surgery would not be too long. 45 minutes. He said we would be able to see conner about 20 min after that. This was going to be a VERY LONG HOUR and a half. They gave us a pager so we could walk around or go get food from the cafeteria. J and i decided to try to distract ourselves and we would go and get something to attempt to eat. I was a nervous wreck..what if something happened......what if he bleeds tooo much. these were the only thoughts going through my mind.

After what seemed like an eternity the pager finally went off...Jesse and I literally dumped the food that i couldnt eat anyway, and took off as fast as we could to get to our little boy. We made it back to our room. The Doc came in to talk to us. He said the surgery went well. He said conner was in phase one of recovery. WE would get to see him at phase two. He did tell me that conners tonsils were SUPER SWOLLEN. He told us that he for sure had strep again, and because of the swelling and infection that he bled more than usual. He said he would be alright.... but that he will probably vomit during recovery. They say if you get any blood whatsoever that enters your stomach..u will puke it up.

I just soo badly wanted to see and hug my baby boy. I missed him soo much..i just wanted him back in our arms. After another 30-40 min i finally see this bed being wheeled down to our room. That's him..there is our baby!...as soon as they rolled him in i did not know what to expect..would he be crying..would he be sick..would he be in horrible pain...but when they brought him he was just sleeping away. It kinda scared me at first cause i would hold his hand and whisper to him. I would ask him to squeeze my hand if he knew mommy was with him, and he wouldnt squeeze...that totally freaked me out...i just wanted him to know daddy and I were finally with him again. He was super super super super pale. He was out cold. The nurses just said that he would wake up when he was ready, and that it was in fact good he was sleeping. Alot of the kids apparently come out screaming and crying. I knew he needed rest but i also didnt want him to think he was still alone. It took quite sometime for him to realize we were with him. When he did, he barely squeezed my hand. I knew he was being sooo BRAVE!

A little bit later he woke up. He looked miserable but the nurses wanted him to try a popsicle. As soon as he took one lick he started to gag. I started to inwardly panic. I soo could not imagine puking when your throat was just operated on. Sadly, That was just the first of many! The poor little guy vomited more blood that day than anything i have ever seen. He couldnt stop. The docs kept checking on him. They kept changing his course of stomach meds to try to get the vomiting to stop. It was sooo sad to see him soo miserable. The nurses felt horrible he wasnt stopping. They prepped us that if he didnt stop the vomiting he would be admitted so they could control the situation. I just wanted my little man to not be in pain and miserable. It was really hard for jesse and I to watch. With hours of non stop vomiting, He finally fell asleep again that afternoon and took a really good nap.

It was a miracle when he woke up. The vomiting had stopped. I was soo relieved. I could not bare to watch him wretch again. I was soo thankful that he was finally able to get some relief. He proved to the nurses he could hold down a half of a popsicle. He also had 3 small bites of jello. He held that down. Woohoo! that meant we could go home. I was soo done and ready to get him home to sleep and relax in his own house.

The nurses were soo good to him that day! They told us over and over that they could not believe what a trooper he was. That kid did not shed one tear there in the hospital that day. Even with all the vomiting...he did not shed one tear. They said he was one tough cookie. Most of the children...well 98 percent scream and bawl the whole recovery process...our nurse was soo impressed with how well he took the pain. He was soo brave.

Conner got his own personal ride in a wheelchair out to our car. We were finally heading home! I was sooo glad to get home. I could not wait to lay and snuggle with him in bed...and i knew little gavin was dying to see all of us too. We were gone WAY WAY WAY longer than everyone had expected so it was nice to be able to tell conner we could head home.

Home...we made it home....phew...what a day it had been. I knew we were in for a long recovery.. I went to bed early. It was nice to cuddle into my precious lil boy and just hold him. We snuggled. It was nice how mommy is still the best medicine. He snuggled me and we both fell asleep. We were ready for the long haul recovery. I made it through today..i could make it through the recovery.

The adventure's of our "Hallo Weenie!"

2009-11-03T07:03:00.001-08:00

I wanted to start off my halloween post with a few of the halloween jokes that were told many times around here. I laughed and laughed and laughed..and laughed!

What couldn't the boy ghost get the girl ghost pregnant?
because he had a "hallo weenie!"

what do you get when you goose a ghost?
A handful of sheet!

Why cant witches have babies?
Because their husbands have crystal balls!

We made "spoooky" pumpkins(well daddy did the Amazing carving..mommy helped with the guts)

the boys were very intrigued!..

Sorry they are a little blurry..

We had Capt'n America and Iron Man come to stay at our house!

Capt'n America HIMSELF

Tony Stark Aka: IRON MAN! (the gavinator is OBSESSED with iron man, he is constantly singing "i am iron man..da da da da da da da daaaaa..his favorite song is the black sabbath version!)

Joey was Super Dog this year!

The boys came home with too much loot...the one bummer about this was mommy's favorite candy is butterfinger. It was a Sad thing to see that out of a huge freakin entire bowl full of candy..there was not ONE Butterfinger...SAd...i was soo looking forward to "sneaking" those one's out of the bucket! It must have been a sign! hahahaha!

All in all we had a great "hallo weenie" night! It was fun to hang out and trick or treats with the boys! The night was EVEN BETTER with the DUCKS VICTORY to USC...(sorry all my SC fans...that was one night where i had to cheer on our DUCKS BABY) Here is my shout out to the Oregon Ducks! They rocked in that night!

The Creepy Crawler!

2009-10-29T15:23:00.001-07:00

In kindergarten, the homework is a monthly project that comes home with your child. It is something the whole family can help their little kinder boy/or girl with.

The Con Mans school homework this month, was to make a spider. He was soo excited to make his spider. The spider needed to have a head and an abdomen. The legs needed to come out of the abdomen. Other than that u could do, or use whatever u wanted to make this spider. This is his creation. All i did was apply the hot glue. He also decided the spider needed a web and live on a stick. I also laughed at the fang's he made. He decided to use a tooth pick, and cut them really small. He then colored them red. Here is the con mans little creepy crawler...

'

And of course the little gavinator made one for his "homework". He loves being doing anything and EVERYHING his brother does. He normally wears shirts, I promise! In this house, if their is a painting project, the shirt is off....I am ok with paint ALL OVER THE TABLECLOTH, but I am not ok with the paint all over their clothes...hahahaha

the gavinator told me the spider was going to get me and the camera...I am DEATHLY AFRAID OF SPIDERS! He thought that was a really funny game to play with his mom!hahahaha

The kids and I had a blast creating these creepy crawlers!

"WT" or "WHITE TRASH NIGHT!"

2009-10-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

My friends and I have been known to have "girls nights" where we head down to walmart really late at night..we leave our houses usually about 900 at night. Walmart is open 24 hours, so when u go late at night..the real "crazies" come out in full force and you tend to laugh the night away at all the funny things you see/witness.

I call this super duper fun night, WT night, or White trash night! The girls and I love WT night.

In the past we have also stopped at Sherri's. We get dessert, or fries..or any other delish treat. White trash night at Sherri's b4 or after Wali World tends to make the night even better! Sherri's is kinda of a white trash restaurant where lots of WT people go, and it is open 24 hours so that makes it a bonus.
... it makes it nice that we can dine late at night!

Dayna, (my MIL) was here visiting and we needed to go to walmart to get a few items
b4 conner had his surgery. It is about 3o min away, so I don't get to get down there too often. Then the idea came!

WOOHOO..i was going to call up the Besties and make this another fun WT night...except this time we would go ALL OUT! We were not only going to go out and laugh the night away..but we would also dress the part of being WT. It was soooo much fun helping each other get ready for our WT night...i even got the MIL to participate! IT was a BLAST!!

I was soo excited to get ready for this event. I decided to wear Jesse's "camping jacket" he calls it. This is one jacket he owns that i do not like one bit..but tonight i would reconcile with it and actually wear it proudly. This jacket doubled up with some nice tights and BLUE CROCKS made this outfit really come together. Not to mention the horrific makeup job i did...i mean i am sure my 3 year old could have applied the makeup better than this. hahaha...nothing says WT better than some old caked on makeup with a rotten tooth! To add to the effect..i had my besties put on a Harley Davidson tattoo just above the "girls"...the sight was too much for me to handle...all i know is, I was scarred by looking at my self in the mirror that night.

Now when u view these pics..do not fret..i know they are pretty
U-G-L-Y and if u do not want to continue on i totally understand!

The Gang!

I think the pants and shoes everyone is wearing freakin rocks too!

I must say i was soo grateful for crocks and rain boots that night! they served a wonderful purpose! I thought i would never say that about crocks!

We left the house about 8:45 pm. We decided to hit sherri's first this time. It was pretty funny because the waiter was actually nervous/scared to talk to us. He just kinds looked at his awkwardly and tried his best to stay away from us. I say he stayed "away" from us cause the service totally sucked that night. We even sat around giving each other WT names! It was awesome. I was laughing even more,how the waiter was totally weirded out! Oh the memories that were made there that night were priceless!

We then got in the car and headed down to wallie world! IT was awesome..i don't even think we got to the store until almost 1100. When we got there we had to do a few returns for my friend. I went with her to the return desk and it made me laugh so hard at the employee who was working the desk.

Oh MY...lets just say that we actually didn't look half bad...As we walked around the store we would get one of two responses..people would walk by and totally not even realize we are WT, and that we totally fit right in..or they would stare as we walked by, and then say "did u see those girls?" hahahaha IT was hilarious..the best is when we split up to each get a few things and MIL and I were walking by ourselves, people kept double taking and staring at us. This lovely duo walking around shopping must have looked pretty freakin awesome! It was CLASSIC!

The lady checking us out was even better than we were. I don't think she was too found of us and we must have offended her because she was sooo grouchy and short.
...i think we may have offended her. My friend had bought silly putty that said 99 cents on the bin. The bin was full of silly putty. My friend bought 3..one for each of her kiddos. Well the lady at the register said it was not 99 cents. I was confused by this since the entire bin was full, and the sign said "silly putty,
99 cents" We asked her to go and look and she was getting all perturbed with us. I didnt understand why she was being rude with us and really she wouldn't listen and was not taking us seriously. She picks up the silly putty and says..."its not 99 cents because it is Glow in the Dark" our reply " ughhh well then maybe u need to mark the entire bin cause that is what is says...and they are all glow in the dark..." I am not sure why the silly putty being glow in the dark would mark the price up soo high. She then said it was going to be a pain to adjust the mistake she made. Well...that is not our fault. We told her the first time that the dang silly putty was 99 cents. I am pretty sure she was not taking us seriously because of our attire and she most certainly was not thrilled about having to make the price adjustment for the mistake she made. I then realized she must have been proud of her WT heritage and this little gang of women was not sitting well with her.

The night was a very fun filled exciting night. We made it home at around 100am. It was soo much fun and i think the only part that sucked was the fact that a few of the girls had 9am church...

Good Bye Tonsils and Adnoids!

2009-10-13T19:32:00.001-07:00

TOmorrow bright and early, before even the roosters will even cock a doodle doo...we will be off to the hospital for conners surgery!

Goodbye tonsils....gooodbye adnoids....goodbye fevers....good bye horrible strep throat...good bye blisters...goodbye throat rashes...goodbye vomiting from the strep throat... good bye bleeding from the blisters in his throat...good bye germs that cause strep throat...goodbye deep pockets where the germs would fester in his throat...goodbye 9 postive strep tests this year...goodbye...goodbye...and GOODBYE!

We pray this will fix the problem!

Good bye tonsils. Good bye Adnoids. GOOD Riddens...You will not be missed!

Hip HIp Horray for Auntie Kimi!

2009-10-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

SO one of my very besties came to visit a few weeks back! It was soo much fun to be able to see her! We call her auntie kim/kimi. Kim and I have known each other since we were 4 years old! thats right...4 years old...so if you do that math that means we have been friends for a VERY VERY VERY LONG TIME! She lives in Califonia where i grew up! We have stayed in contact since i moved away form CA when i was 14. I love her to death and i love that my kids have her in their lives too!

We had lots of snuggle time...It was awesome!

Gavin was ECSTATIC to say the least when he found out that auntie kimi has not yet seen Iron Man... he was sooo pumped to be able to sunggle and have her see his FAV movie with him. He even told her she could be Tony...which for him is a HUGE DEAL! Everyday he tells me he is "tony". To be able to be "allowed" to be "Tony" is the ultimate privledge in his book! I bet u can guess what the gavinator is going to be for halloween! hahahahaha!

Kim has never seen the BEAUTIFUL Oregon COast! So i planned A SUPER DUPER COOL GIrls Day Adventure! My friends and I all decided a little "break" from life was what we needed and we headed down to the coast for a day while the munchkins hung out at home with daddy! It was sooo freakin FUN!!

We Shoppped until we dropped...literally!.. We all hit some totally amazing deals. The deals that day at the outlets were UNHEARD OF! We were overjoyed with happiness!

We then and ate and ate at goooood ol' MOES! It is this yummy resturant on the beach! I just love MOE's! The clam chowder was sooo delish! Here are some pics of us at the beach by moes!

so this pic cracked me up..i was trying to get kim to pose for the picture with me and it looks like she is trying to get fresh with me..hahahaha
The laughter then followed!

We found a blackberry bush! ummmmmm.. yummy!

We had lots of fun getting our silly's out!

Since the sun went town and the town was closing up for night we sadly had to end our journey and head home. We had a hour and a half drive ahead of us and we still wanted to hit wali world(walmart). They do not have walmarts here like they do in utah or most other states. There are two here by my neck of the wookds and they are both are a good 30 minutes at least away. Wlamart is a huge hit on girls nights You can't beat the cheap stuff and people watching should become a sport! It always makes for great entertainment!

On our way through cute lincoln city, we notice a BILZILLION police cars. Lights have lit up the dark sky. We have no idea what is going on....they are circlied around each other and then they have shut down all lanes of traffic. They didnt want anyone NEAR the scene. It was dark and we were being averted up a back street. We are all on the edge of our seats to see what one earth could be happening.

As we pass we are not sure what is going on...until one of my friends says..."omg...there is a body bag undermeath the police car!" Me being the very curious person i am ask if we can drive back around we can see if that is really what is is..So we flip around in a close neighborhood and check it out again. "OMG"....yes, I did say "OMG" on my blog....

We are a little fascinated by the scene and being the crazy women we are we do another drive by from a different direction to try and get a different angle..this time really s-l-o-w to try so we can see better what is going on. Yes, i know it kinda sounds morbid and crazy..but lets face it..there are 4 women in the car who had a release on life today..we are a little bit crazy...I wanted to see with my own eyes. Plus it is a little bit fascinating, right...right!

So we are all laughing that all of us but poor auntie kimi have the desire to drive by again to try to see the scene again...Poor auntie kimi is mortified and probably a little bit bothered. I tell u curiosity killed the cat.. but I couldnt let it go. kim got to learn that we crazy mommies were VERY CURIOUS and very CRAZY that night. It was soo bizarre, but yet i couldnt take my eyes off. We drive bye again and yes......we see a yellow body bag tucked back away with the police cars attempting to block the view...I was totally freakin out! What in the world happened! ....As we drive by this time we see further up the road some traffic workers pickup truck with a mangled bike in back. We then piece together that that's what happened. .......SAD!

WE all had way too much excitement and craziness all in one night...we had to get back home to reality...All in all the weekend with kim was soo much fun and we miss her soo much already!

Conner's "mini me"

2009-09-15T21:01:00.001-07:00

So for the con man's first homework assignment, they brought home these little paper people. The homework was for the moms and dads to work with their child and make it look just like them. They said you could use whatever you wanted to make the "mini me" look like your child. We actually had a blast making it. I had at first mumbled about this project because he got the assignment when i was in the middle of strep..and i had no energy to start this. Poor Jesse was slammed last week with trying to pick up the slack with work..house..kids and helping me so we just didn't get around to this.

Last night we started to work on his little guy. He was due today. Jesse and I both had a blast planning and working with Conner. Conner loved "shopping online" to pick out the shirt to wear with his camo shorts. He had a hard time choosing but decided that "star wars" was the one it had to be. He is obsessed with star wars. He was soo excited to cut daddy's old camo shorts and make them into shorts for his "mini me" *(daddy's shorts had holes and were ready to be junked anyway!) He was sooo excited to find the same "chuck taylors" he wears so he could make sure his little Conner looked just like him. We worked long and hard on this little project...and i love love love how it turned out!

The funny part...this homework assignment was due today. They wanted all the mini me's up on the board for the parent teacher conference tonight. Well, Conner returned home from school this afternoon, and I looked in his backpack..and guess who was still in there...his mini me...oppps....first homework assignment, and he forgets to turn it in. I hope this doesn't become a habit. hahahaha! It looks like mini me gets to have a sleepover in the backpack tonight...again...and tomorrow he can hopefully make it to the wall like was was supposed too!

" The mini conner!"

Oh the places he sleeps....

2009-09-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

I was heading up the stairs one night..only to barely miss stepping on this....

I walk into my boys room to kiss them goodnight...and i see this...

I have found him like this numerous times during nap time too...but he has toys surrounding him.

I have blogged before about him sleeping here..

Apparently the bed is not good enough. this crazy kid...and the places i find him sleeping. I don't get it..i cannot sleep anywhere but my bed...and this nut could sleep wherever...whenever..and totally be fine with it. Gotta love it!

First Day Craziness!

2009-09-10T15:00:00.001-07:00

Update on my week of craziness:
Today, i am recovering from strep throat. Conner has had ongoing stomach pain for two days. LAst week conner and gavin had strep throat. I was hoping he was all better....then last night more craziness hit my house. It all started two nights ago when i heard someone puking. I woke up, jumped out of bed...then killed over in pain. My head hurt...my body ached..my throat felt like someone had sliced it open and poured alcohol down it...i was feeling like CRAP. I knew i had a fever and i felt like i was dying. It hit out of nowhere.

I come back to my senses to the sound of wretching. Poor con man was puking in the other bathroom. He just had strep last week, so i knew it wasn't that. He also did not have a fever or diarrhea. hummm....wierd.....must be a flu virus. Well the next morning he was playing fine. The only sign from him being sick the night before was the sign of grouchiness(lack of sleep) and not eating. The only symptom between now and then is no appetiate. He does not want to eat.

So i was in bed last night at like 700.(due to being horribly sick).. once again...i was woke up at midnight to the sound of him crying cause he was throwing up again. NO...not today!...it is the first day of school. I would feel soo bad if he missed this. He has looked forward to this day for soooo long. His stomach pains were getting worse...He is complaining about it and doubling over in pain. I touch his stomach. The first part of the night it is all around. Then as the night goes on,it is hitting the right side. I just layed awake by his side to try to calm him. I called the DR first thing in the morning...dont worry..j and i watched him all night long.

. Last night, jesse and i were soooo bummed when he was not doing soo well. He had been soo excited for this day ..we felt so bad that he might not be able to enjoy it. We were worried...Of course.. this all goes down when when our normal dr is not in the office! joy! So, we get in to see someone else. Great... The appointment was a total waste of time...(do not even get me started on that tangent)...but i was told he was not contagious. The dr didnt even really give him the time of day, but he did tell me that if he got worse during the day, the school would call us. They didnt really know what was going on. We know he is in alot of pain..but no one quite knows why. They bascially shooed us out the door.... ..I was worried it was the beginning of appendencitis. I was told if he had appendecitis then he would start vomiting alot and he would run a high fever..(great i guess i will just sit around and wait for those symptoms) What? OK.., so we leave....confused.. The Dr did mention since he hadnt thrown up since midnight, and he wasnt throwing up now ..i should try to send him and see how he did. Ok..i guess if he feels better by 1130 today i will send him. But that is only if he is not doubled over in pain like he had been.

Mr hubs and i consulted. We figured if he was going to have horrible stomach pains at home maybe he would get distracted at school and not notice them as bad. If it gets worse,then I knew the school would call us to come and get him. I felt bad cause he hadnt slept all night and was tired. oh well..Its the first day of school and he really wanted to be there to figure it all out. So now its time to get ready for school.

Why cant we all be well...please?? For at least a month? That is all i ask. REally is this too much? Ok i would like a year? a whole year of no sickies.

So today was marks the first day of school. The First day of craziness, and the first day it all begins!

We made it out the door just in time for him to catch his bus. Conner still had pain but he is excited to get to school. Poor gavin loved seeing the bus and was soo excited..that is until the bus drove off with his brother. He started crying on my shoulder. He missed conner. He wanted to go with him. This of course, along with the "im not feeling so hot" me, started to cry..I was teary ..gavin was crying..i look over and even jesse was a little teary.(even if he doesn't admit it)Our baby was on his way to school. He didnt feel great...but he wanted to give it a try... He is growing up. Life is going to get soo hectic around here. Which is alot since it is already crazy busy. My babies are getting older.

Sigh....He made it on the bus...He made it to his class...He made it back to the bus, and apparently made it home by himself.

I was told to pick him up at 240 from the bus stop. So, that is what I planned on doing. I then get this tiny knock on my door at 200. I thought ? who on earth could that be?...conner should not be here for another 40 min. I open the door to see his smiling face. The bus was stopped in front of my house( which normally the bus stop is on the corner of our house, just down the block) The bus driver was watching to make sure he made it in. He kinda gave me a funny look like(hey lady..this is your kids first day..why the He$* were u not at the bus stop.) I glance at the other kids one the bus...all of which are older, a few are glaring at me...I waved to the bus driver and asked conner how get got to the house.

Me: " conner. how did you get to the house? did the bus driver drop u off in front of the house?"

Conner: "nope. he dropped me off at the bus stop. I didn't see u there, so i started to run home. He turned the bus around to follow me to the house. Mommy..i was running and he was following me! He was slower than me!

Me: "oh man...I had chuckled but it was sort of a nervous chuckle. That is soo nice of him to follow you home. I am glad he watched u get home safely.(I then feel like an A-hole of a mom cause i wasn't able to meet my son at the bus stop on the first day.) Why didn't i meet him? Cause i apparently did not know school was out at 200 today. I was never told this. I had no documents to tell me this. I just assumed school was out the normal time.

I hug conner and we talk all about his first day. I then head to the phone to call the school and figure out why the heck i didn't know my kid would be here 40 min early. It was all a mix up from the beginning when the school called me a month ago to let me know he was in am kindergarten. It was a huge suprise when he had his open house yesterday. We find out he was not in am..he was in pm. That is a big difference. I would loved to have known these things b4 and been more prepared. But then i stepped back and realized i needed to count my blessings. I was soo grateful that i had not run any errends today. I was actually counting my blessings for being sick which caused me to be home- bound. Shesh.. I never thought i would be greatful for being sick. Especially this sickness..it has been he*# (if you know what im saying.)

Apparently his kindergarten teacher is new to teaching this year..and new to the school, so i think she must not have known or remembered to tell us yesterday at the orientation that school was out at 200 today. Now i know..and i can be prepared for his arrival tomorrow at 200. Oh well..things could have been aLOT WORSE! He made it through his first day! I made it through...And here is to the next wonderful school year and many more crazy stories that will come!

I love you conner..i am soo glad u loved your first day of school!..now if we can figure out this stomach thing..that would be great!:)

The Sanctuary! (one of them)

2009-09-02T17:17:00.000-07:00

When Jesse and i bought this house..we knew it had soo much potential...but we also knew we would have to put in a TON OF SWEAT EQUITY..and i mean a TON. We bought this house from a little old couple, and she had some really awful taste. Let's just say her choice of pink and teal was WAYYYYYY over used! We have been slowly remodeling..one project at a time. This summer, I really wanted to get my downstairs bathroom done.... We still have the floors to do, but that will come...eventually.

I have been visitng one of my favorite store's alot lately. I love getting ideas. It is one of my fav places to check out. Good ol' Restoration Hardware. I love their paint color pallet. Some of you may not even realize they actually sell paint. And it is heavenly!..though it is expensive. So we got a tiny sample and then we color match it through home depot (makes it soooo much cheaper.) Gotta love Home Depot! I have been in love with this one color for quite a long time know. In fact ..this color is what inspired me to do my living room the way i did. I love it! They have some freaking awesome colors. I was soo excited to get the remodel started. Not to mention, I was soo excited to have it looking purty for when we had all that company a while ago. Thanks to my awesome brother in law, James..and jesse...and a little bit of me...we got the downstairs bathroom done! I love it! This is what we did 4th of july weekend..what a fun 4th of july! hahaha! I am just soo happy it is done. It is actually enjoyable to sit and do your businessin there.(if you know what I'm saying).. It is soo peaceful...there is nothing better than pooping in a peaceful atmosphere right? And for any of you that get all disgusted here...get over it...People Poop. In fact...one of our favorite books around here is called "everyone poops!" My kids can quote it word for word. Anyhow...here are some before and afters...sorry i didn't take as many b4's..

Before:

And ..(here is the drum roll)....."The After!"

After:

The tale of the Christensen Fam Reunion!

2009-08-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

(WARNING: long post! exciting... but long!)
So back at the end of July we had the Christensen family all come up here to oregon for week!! It was soo fun to have all of J's immediate family be here! We loved being able to show them the different things oregon has to offer! And we loved having the family be able to see where Jesse and I live! WE had a blast! It was soo nice to spend time with the family and see all our cute nephews! We reserved a beach house up at Rockaway beach, Oregon! I love it here! It is sooo beautiful! It is one of my favorite beaches to stay at! I love the BEACH!! The best part was our Beach house was LITERALLY RIGHT ON THE BEACH! It was soo AWESOME to open our back door to the sand ...and see/walk right to the ocean! Plus their was the added bonus of the house having a gate around the backyard, so the kids were all able to play in the sand, and we didn't have to worry about them sneaking out to the ocean! I was soo happy that we were able to have a house that fit every single one of us and had room to relax..plus it BACKED to the beach and it was afforable!Oh my!!... It was paradise! well..except the water is icy cold...and the weather was not 90 degrees! but come on...we are at the oregon coast for goodness sake...not Hawaii!

B4 we went off to the coast for our fun week..We took the family to the nature reserve here by my house! It was soo fun! I love the nature reserve, and i love that u always have soo much fun! Plus it is FREE!! We packed up a picnic dinner...and decided to take the family and show them this awesome place. We had a ton of fun! We walked the nature hike and saw all the beauty their is to offer! I would say EVERYONE HAD A BLAST!

After all the excitement and Craziness to get out the door to the coast...we FINIALLY MADE IT!...It was soo nice!

We got to practice yoga.

And we played lots of beach soccer!(my fav...but i am sooo OUT OF SHAPE!)

We did a little of this...

And a little of that...

Jesse and seth had a special moment

We got to spend hours everyday looking here:

We saw some awesome sea friends! there where soo many everywhere!

My 6 year old found me a heart shaped rock..he then presented it to me as a suprise and told me how much he loved me! It made my heart melt! And i had to keep the Rock!

You may call us crazy, but we all ran willingly in the Freezing Cold OCEAN for a swim!!...oh my..!!! OH MY... Was it cold...Conner even braved the ocean..and same with his cousin josh!
(tara and I with our worried faces b4 running in the ocean)

Mr.C and the Gavinator had a blast with their cousins...and they tell me daily how much they miss them.

By the end of the week, we all became professional ROCKSTARS!!
\

We loved being able to enjoy this time with family! It was soo nice to have them up here! We loved it, even through the occasional choas:)..We want to do this again! and we miss everyone already!

It was soo nice to escape the real world! and who better to do it with than your family!
Goodbye... Rockaway Beach....until next time!

Happy Birthday Gavinator!!

2009-08-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

So the birthday's in this family are close together. Conner and Gavin's birthdays are two weeks apart. Mine are Jesse's are a week apart. The boys are in the summer. Mine and J's are in the winter.

I just wanted to give a little shout out to my little baby, the gavinator! Except sadly he is no longer a little baby. I cant believe today he is three. I swear it was just yesterday that i had him. He is such a delight! He has brought soo much to this family! We love him soo much. I am soo grateful for him. Happy Birthday little man...we love you to death!(he would say ..."i not little man...I a Huge boy.") hahahaha.

I love his raspy little truckers voice...i love his sense of humor...i love the way he squints his eyes just like i did when i was little...i love he thinks the WORLD of his older brother!..and would do anything for him!...i love his cute little smile....I love that when he talks he puts the letter "f" in front of his words...He will tell me all the time how much he loves his "frother"(brother)I love how he says "frandma and Frandpa(for grandma n grandpa). I love how he says the word "Trucks"...except it comes sounding like another word like that, but just with the F sound in front! hahaha..oh man, i laugh everytime! I love how he blows me kisses...he blows me the kiss first...then he makes the kissy noise with his lips.(backwards to how it is normally done)..I love how much he makes our family laugh....I love how every night when we put him to bed...he ALWAYS come out at least 3 times. And each time he says..."i just needed to give you a kiss mommy"...or "i just needed a hug mommy" no matter how many time i have hugged and kissed him goodnight..!!!oh the list could go on for days and days...WE JUST love everything about this boy...head to toe! I love my amazing boys! I love them both soooooo much! They are the world to me! Thank you little gavinator for joining this world 3 years ago...and thank you for being my "huge boy"!

Happy birthday Buddy...we sure do love you to pieces! A look down memory lane!

Why??!!!!

2009-07-31T07:44:00.000-07:00

Lovely...the AC in my house is officially broken...and i am sooo MAD...It is HOT..and i just want it fixed..

HOT!!

2009-07-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

It is HOT!! and i meant HOT! that is with a capitol H-O_T! It reached a scorching 106 degrees yesterday and today it hit 110...My house has AC...but it cant keep up. I cant EVEN imagine how those with no AC are surviving. I even feel bad for the bums outside who are roasting to death themselves...(did i say bums out loud..i meant transients). I feel bad for the old people who have no AC and have no energy to go out and get in the wet sprinkler to cool down...i feel bad for babies..they have no clue in he&* why it is soo hot and they have to be stuck in a hot carseat to travel..I hate that as soon as you open the door outside it feels like a wall hits your lungs and you cant breath or see cause it is soo hot. I feel like everytime i open the door outside i feel like i am going to die a horrible heat related death. I feel bad for the dogs and cats who have to be outside...I thought by the time i got home from work echo and joey (our dogs) were going to be dead from heat stroke...It was SOOO HOT!(don't worry..they were ok..we cooled them down with spraying them with water multiple times throughout the day...gave them lots of water and made sure they had shade to lay down in) they are surviving but i am pretty sure they are as bugged as i am.) Even joey who hates water and always freaks out, was willing to get sprayed down!

Even with AC, my house is still sitting at 87 degrees right now. That sucks and that is just the downstairs. It is 930 at night...the temp outside has not cooled under 98 degrees..and holy smokes i am going to have to take another cold shower!..I don't want to complain or sound like a wuss...but if i were living in Vegas or Arizona...the hot weather would be fine. The houses have AC and that AC actually works. Plus..I feel more mentally prepared to enter the heat in those states..I am more prepared......the houses have tile inside and i love to lay my hot body across the cold tile to cool down. There are pools in most peoples yards...or if not, at least your neighbor or close friends have a pool to go in.....Here in beautiful Oregon...it is NOT fine to be this hot! seriously....i am done with the HOTTNESS here! The only hotness i want is MY HOTTNESS...I want to be the only hot thing in Oregon! hahahahaha! I'm done..and i would like my perfect 80 degree weather to come back and visit me!

Just make the heat go away...

PLEASE........;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONNER!!!

2009-07-14T22:22:00.001-07:00

6 years ago...On the 15th of July 2003... at 10:27 pm...I delivered my
first born. My sweet baby boy, Conner finally entered this world! We were soo excited to have him join our family!
I cant believe that today he is already 6! I cant believe I am old enough to have a 6year old..I swear sometimes I still feel like im 16 and too young to have kids!Conner is such a sweet boy! Happy birthday Conner! You have made all my dreams of becoming a mommy real! We LOVE U Too pieces!!! Thank you for just being you! I love you!

My trip down memory lane!.......

lil baby conner

1 years old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

The big 6!

SEXY.....Sexy People!!!

2009-07-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

......no the title is not talking about me!

nor is the title dirty!...have no fret..this post is still rated G...

So every morning after i wake up i get, I get soo excited to turn on my computer and see this..
http://www.sexypeople-blog.com

..Now dont be alarmed..it is not some nasty site..it is just funny. Well not funny..its H A L I R O U S!!

I love this website. I can be having a terrible no good very bad day, and as soon as i click on this site..I LAUGH!...and i laugh REALLY HARD! And i like that it can brighten those terrible no good very bad days! Some of the pictures are SOOOO FUNNY! There have been times where i have laughed so hard my stomach feels like i just did 100000 sit ups! It is GREAT! Thank you tara for introducing me to this! I love it.. and i want all to see and laugh as hard as i do!

ENJOY!!!

Lil Gavinator!!

2009-06-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

So i wanted to write a quick post so i don't forget about the funny things my lil gavinator says. He cracks me up! Last nigh,t i was making homemade chicken enchiladas. This recipe i have is a HUGE HIT at my house. Literally... my boys and husband request this meal at least TWICE a week!! I love it cause 1...its super easy and 2...its yumo delisho!!!! So it is a win win situation for us all. I start preparing the chicken and stirring in the re fried beans. The gavinator gets his chair to "help" me. He is right next to me asking me a million questions as to what i am doing. I tell him i am making chicken enchiladas. He says to me "Chick A LADAS" as he pronounced it! HAHAHA yes gavinator i am making Chick A LADAS!!! Thus that is the name that has stuck. So we ATE DELISH super yummy "Chick A LAdas" last night and it was YUMMO!!!

While i am preparing dinner:(side note) its 800 at night. I am just getting to dinner. Jesse and his little brother james are prepping our downstairs bathroom for a RE VAMP!! that is my term for "woohoo...we are getting this ugly downstairs bathroom remodeled!! WOOOOOT!!!" I am soo excited about this. We bought this house 21/2 years ago from a 80+ year old couple. And i tell you what, it has been been quite the working project. Everything(I MEANT EVERYTHING has had to be brought up to DATE. I cannot not even list how many things we have had to remodel and update in this house. So its finally the downstairs bathrooms turn. I realized I never really told the kids that daddy would be doing this today. I had been at work and then i took the boys swimming. While i am preparing dinner at a ridiculous hour gavinator hears some banging and pounding noises. He stops, looks at me..and then runs to investigate what on earth is happening. He runs into the bathroom. That is when i hear this:
"uhhhh ohhhh daddy. Uhhhh ohhhh.....daddy...uhhh...That is a poor choice. Dats(thats) where i go Peez(pee). Dat's naughty."

In the meantime jesse is ripping out some old molding that was in the bathroom above the toilet. Gavin is not at all happy that daddy is tearing up the bathroom. And then i hear..

"daddy...your making it hurt. Your making it hurt.uhhh oh...Daddy u are going to get a timeout.." hahahahahaha..poor kid was concerned. And even funnier that he was concerned that tearing out the molding was hurting the bathroom..hahahaha

We all laughed pretty hard..man..I love these boys...

RIP my little camera!

2009-06-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

So Mr.C has been OBESSED with taking my camera and going around and taking pictures. This usually is ok because he has proven to me multiple times that he can be careful with it. I take that back..he has been SUPER ULTRA careful with it. He and Gavinator like to "suprise" me with the pics they take around the house,and i usually do not know what all the pics are until i upload them to my computer. Then i sit and laugh at all the things they have taken pictures of.

Mr. C is also old enough to understand that it is not a "toy". He really does a good job of holding it safely ,keeping the wrist strap on and so forth...u get what i mean...Well if only the little gavinator could understand this..He just SOOO BADLY wants to be just like his big brother. So on this lovely occasion about 3 days ago, I was busy working. I start to hear arguing and yelling...This is not an uncommon practive in my home...i am CONSTANTLY putting out "fires" between these two little boys. They are the best of friends, but i tell u what they FIGHT LIKE CRAZY!

Well i wanted to intervene and help with the situation. I could tell it was getting out of control so just as i was jumping up after almost hanging up on a customer..thats when i realized..CRAP!Mr.C has my camera!

..... well..lets just say I was a day late, and a buck short in getting in the room fast enough to see what was happening. I walk in..both boys are crying..the camera is on the floor...and lets just say i no longer have my awesome little point and shoot camera. With all the fighting over what who would take the next picture in the kitchen, and conner trying to "keep it safe", the poor camera got dropped on the floor, and now i have two very upset boys. They are upset cause they know they will get in trouble. I am upset because my camera in broken...and i was on a work call so i couldnt get out there fast enough. I get both boys in timeout..and then i go and rescue my camera...just to find, the lens that goes in and out when the power in on or off is totally jammed! I was soo bummed. And sad...Mr.C has been soo careful with this camera. The only reason he dropped it was because he was trying to keep it safe from the his little brother (whose two year old little hands do not quite understand the rules of how to handle mommys camera CAREFULLY). So i am one upset mommy..her awesome little camera she uses all the time has been destroyed. The crappy part too was that i had just figured out all the little gagets that this thing had. And if any of you know we well enough, it has only taken me 1+ years to figure out how to use it. I am soo bummed. But i must go and console my very upset little boys, and try to make things better. No need to have any more tears...it is over and done with.

I get this brilliant idea to go to Ritz Camera(camera repair) and see about how much it would be to fix it. That ended up being a worthless trip because they told me that it would cost $200 just to send the camera into the repair store. Then more money, depending on how long it would take to fix it. What in the HE*&?.... Are you kidding me... That stupid thing was only like $140 at Costco..Why in the WORLD would it cost more to have the crooked lens repaired...COME ON...SERIOUSLY????....That is soo Freakin stupid...and why the He$& would u charge me way MORE than the dang thing even was when i bought it in the first place...REALLY???

So TO my poor little camera..may you rest in peace...and the next time...i guess I need to make sure the boys are each shooting pics from their OWN DISPOSABLE cameras..SO there are no more arguments.. and so that i dont care if it gets accidently dropped and broken...

Here are some of the last pics taken on that lovely camera...and they were all taken by the lovely MR.C...enjoy

"Oh Dear...what have i done"

2009-06-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

I know that i have not posted in a long long long time. Our computer got nailed with a horrible virus so we have had to completely re-vamp the whole dang thing. Thank goodness for smart brother-in-law who is up here helping us this summer...he is not only helping us, but he is doing a great job at it .. he has also been a life savor when it comes to the helping us fix the freakin computer! phew...thank goodness..we love you James...

So i don't have my pics up and running yet..so i am going to have a ton of posts to catch up on..but i wanted to write about my lovely evening with my two little boys.

We had a super duper fun day out with one of my old friends from high school. She was here visiting her sister from out of town. I was way excited to her. We havnt seen each other for who knows how long..it has been a LONG TIME!! So since she was in town, i could not wait to get together and see her! We had soo much to catch up on!....We had a busy busy super duper fun day. We had a blast and i loved being able to hang out with you Becca!! It was awesome...and i need a copy of those pics!:)I hope my boys didnt scare you off! hahahaha! we want you to come back! hahahaha!

When i got home this afternoon, i was trying to just take it easy and relax, since Sunday to Monday I had the worst case of the stomach flu EVER!!..I was tired..and warn out! It was a super duper fun busy day and I was ready to just relax, and count down the hours until bed time for my little munchkins.

Well the boys were trying to self entertain. I heard alot of giggling and laughing from them on the couch. As i look up, I notice Mr. C has stuffed a towel down his shirt to form a lump. I then notice the gavinator doing the same thing. They were laughing soo hard and i couldn't figure out what they were doing. Their laughter would not stop, and so i looked up to ask them what they were doing...and they told me,"look mom...we made boobs" oh dear!!...I almost died...What on earth...and Why?? ...and that was the game that entertained them for hours until bedtime...All i have to say is "oh dear...what have i done?"

ONE CRAZY FAMILY!

2009-05-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

We have been soo absolutely crazy busy here, that i have been neglecting my lovely amazingly wonderful blog. I have had things that i have wanted to write about to remember, and then i get soo crazy that i forget to write them and then they turn into a blur with the rest of my life. Tonight my poor husband has already put in a 15 hour day and still is not going to be able to get home before 3 am. So that makes it a lovely 21 hour day! So i guess i should not be complaining since at least i am home 2night and able to be in my lovely jammies. It is already almost ten and i just got my kids to bed. I had to work and then after work i decided to take the kids swimming. My, oh my, it was fun..busy but fun! But let me tell you once we made it home and i got them ready for bed...I must say it is nice to have the peace and quiet that only bedtime can bring. So as i sit here smelling the Rank smell of Chlorine all over my body...i thought..what the heck..ill blog and at least try to catch up a little bit on our life.

A very good friend had the best idea for her boys bedroom. I loved it soo soo much and so i had to copy her. Thanks Amy..i am soo excited for the boys cute new shelves. She had the idea of putting up recycled/broken skate board decks in her little boys room and then she would use them as shelving. Well...i have been looking for shelves small enough to fit on a certain wall in my boys room, and this IDEA WAS PERFECT! They are the perfect size and once they are installed i can removed half of the clutter that is all over their dressers! And not only does it look so amazingly cute...the skateboard decks were FREE!! I repeat they were FREE!!! WOOT! The only thing i am going to have to pay for is the hardware! woohoo!It is going to look RAD! And it totally helps that Mr.C and little gavinator seriously love skateboards. They both love that the weather has been soo nice so they have been outside whenever they get the chance to practice on their skateboards! SO woohoo to great friends who have great ideas...and "woot" to free shelving for my boys room!
I will post pics once i get them mounted on the wall!

More exciting news is that So you think you can Dance has started. I haven't watched it yet..but i am soo excited to sit and watch with my boys! Jesse and i love to watch it with the boys. Conner and Gavin are both OBSESSED with break dancing. They love it! They will break dance and try to copy what they see and it is ADORABLE! WOOT for my favorite show ! That always makes coming home from an insane day worth it!

And WOOT for KRIS on American IDOL! I have loved him from the start! He is amazing and i am soo glad that he won. Thank you America for agreeing with me! He is quite frankly one of my all time favorites..truly AMAZING!! I think i may become a Kris "groupie" and and have to go to every concert he does here in Portland!:)The night he won I was soooo PUMPED!!! i was not expecting it at all..but when they announced him i literally freaked out! REally..it was SOO AWESOME!!

The weather here has been AWESOME!! I MEAN ABSOLUTELY beautiful! We have tried to spend time outside every chance i get.

well i am getting tired...it has been such a big day and i will have another huge day 2morrow, so i think i am going to hit the sack!
anyhow..i would love to write more, but i hear one child upstairs crying ,so i am off to go and see what is up. I will hopefully be able to post some pics soon..life is busy, life is good...and i hope to see my hubby b4 i forget what he looks like!

Tulip HEAVEN!!!

2009-04-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

I love Oregon! I love all the gorgeous scenery. Everywhere you look it is just BEAUTIFUL! One of the best times to visit, is in april, when you can experience the tulip farms. It is not something you see just anywhere. And it is breathtakinly beautiful! Every year, I head down to the tulip farm, and it is just AWESOME! Their are tulips as far as you can see. Their is every color imaginable! Check it out and see...

I love IT! the pictures just do not do it justice. I love taking the kids here. They love playing on the farm and i have fun looking at the beauty! It is always a blast!

The kids loved all the activities they were able to do...

We were able to get a group shot of all the kids....

We had only one major one of these(aka tantrum)....

We had the gavinator putting the moves on his best friend (aka girlfriend)....

And finially, we had only one scare of a missing one of these(well a BIG scare actually) but we found him safe and sound!....

All in all it was a GREAT day and i cant wait for next year!

Take Me out to the Ball Game...(Sing ALONG)

2009-04-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

......Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game!"

The Con Man has finally become of age where he can play youth sports here in Oregon!! WOOT! ...HOORAY ...Yahoo... Clap!!! I am soo excited that he is now old enough to be able to do this. This kid has been wanting to play baseball..(this and soccer are his favorite sports) for quite some time now...Not only is he old enough now to officially play on the park and recs teams, he is thrilled it is baseball!

He has been telling me for quite some time that when he grows up, he wants to be a "Baseball player"! He really loves it. In Oregon you start playing on the parks and rec team at 5. Well conner is 5 but since his birthday is in July, he made the cut off so he plays with older kids. This means Coach pitch..as oppossed to hitting it off the tee. I was worried at first about how he would do with that..but he has done AWESOME! He can really hit that ball!

He is BY FAR the YOUNGEST!.... but i must say it is ADORABLE to watch him out there playing. Most of the boys are 6 and 7...And most of the boys are at least a head and shoulders length taller than him. Today they had their team pictures and it was adorable when they lined up biggest to smallest..and well conner was the second to smallest kid. Which is a rarety for my son. He is super tall for his age. He towers over most all of his friends, so to see him as the smallest at something is actually kinda cute!

When they got their uniforms..i laughed at how big his shirt is. It is a big kid size medium. Too cute...since he only wears XS and sometimes i will get him a small. So to look out on that field and see his over-sized shirt tucked into his baseball pants,and that cute little boy soo excited to be on the field, it just makes my day!

Just today at our game a few of the other players moms came up to me to say .."I just love looking at your son on the field...he is soo little out there and i love how is is always smiling!" ..I am soo happy conner is having fun and loves playing baseball! Go SUPER CRUSHERS!!....

The Con Man up to BAT...!

The Con Man Fielding!....

I am excited for this season! Super Crushers...you Rock!! All I need is some peanuts! well....and a nice stadium hot dog and coke would be nice too....