Tristin's HUGE muscles...

Here is Tristin showing off his "guns" (Yes, I feed him!)

The hill is gone!

When you become a home owner, you take serious pride in all the little projects you FINALLY get done. Yes I realize this is a silly thing to blog about, but this hill made me angry every single day, and the like the tree that was growing out of it at one point, I wanted it gone! ( The tree was removed shortly after we moved in with the only thing 2 things I had- a dull ax and a hammer. Yes I removed a ginormous tree using the back of a hammer. It took several days and lots of hours, but I finally removed that ugly thing) So, this huge hill remained for many sad months, until the 4th of July. I don't know what got into me, but I went to town digging/leveling the darn thing. About 5 seconds into it, I thought, What in the world am I doing? I need to get ready for the BBQ, I shouldn't be worrying about this right now. But the horribly determined part of me won, and for the next several hours, I sweat my guts out, getting rid of all the dirt. Our wonderful friends gave us their left over sod even! I am SOO glad the tree and hill are gone forever!

The hill before I attacked it...

Here is the hill before I started digging it up. I hated that thing!

I am sad to report we have had our 1st stealing incident...

With 3 kids, I learned very early, the importance of checking pockets before I threw the laundry into the washer. (We all have stories, I'm sure) So, the other day I was checking pockets as usual when I found a scrapbook embellishment wrapper in Tristin's pocket. Weird, I thought, but then all of a sudden it clicked. I had seen a silver brad with the letter A on it on the floor the day before. I thought, Huh, where did that come from? But went about my day without a second thought, until I found the wrapper! As Mom's we just know, so I called Tristin over to talk. I pulled out the wrapper and asked, "Did you steal this?" He hesitated a moment and then said, " Yes." When I asked him why, he said, "Because I thought they were magnetic." I thanked him for being honest but then explained the 50 different reasons why stealing is wrong. We said a prayer that Heavenly Father would forgive him, and then he had to write 5 sentences saying: I WILL NOT STEAL FROM THE STORE AGAIN, next he had to write a letter to the store owner apoligizing and then the next day we went back to the store and talked to the store manager. He had to tell her what he did and that he was sorry. She handled the situation perfectly. She was firm, but kind. She asked him at one point if she should call the police over to talk to him, and with fear in his eyes and his head shaking, he said "No." I made him do the work, but as I was standing back, I had to hold back the tears. There was my little guy getting the you-know-what scared out of him, and so embaressed about the choice he made, but we all knew it had to be done. I think she was even a little watery eyed after the talk. I was both ashamed of his choice, but proud of him for making it right. I thanked the nice lady several times and then walked out of the store. We talked about it for a long time before and after and I hope all the police/jail talk scared the life out of him. It was one of those tender teaching moments we have as Mom's. The only funny part of all of this is: What 6 year old boy steals scrapbook embellishments anyway???!!!

Daisy's dress I made out of a curtain...

So, I've been sewing a lot these days and one of my projects today was Daisy's dress. It was made from a super cute curtain that I found at Goodwill for $ 1.99. Anyway, she loves it and told me, "Mommy, I'm going to wear it forever." We'll see about that. Just thought I'd share!

Thanks for leaving the Oreo's out, Daddy!

So, this morning I was drying my hair when I had this feeling I should check on Grace, when I found her, she was in my room devouring a package of Oreo's that Trav left out from the night before. It wasn't as horrible as the frosting on the couch, just some sticky fingers this time. That's what I get for trying to shower and take care of myself!

Funny things that Daisy has said lately...

If you have a 3 year old, you know how hiliarious they can be. They say the funniest things and you swear you're going to write them down, but most of the time we all forget. Daisy makes me laugh every single day. She is truly a funny little girl. Like most crazy Mom's, I can barely remember what I fed them for breakfast, let alone the funny conversations through out the day, but I have 3 that have stuck with me.
# 1-The other day we were driving to the church orchard to help pick the apricots that needed some love and attention. When I looked in the back seat, I noticed Daisy going to town picking her nose, so I said, "Daisy, do you need a tissue." And she replied, "No Mommy, I just flicked my booger on the floor." Sad, but true.

# 2- A few months ago we were about to begin our game of Candyland when I accidently moved Daisy's guy and she said in an annoying voice, "Hey Mom, that's my dude." She made me laugh.

#3- (My personal favorite) We recently started talking with our neighbor across the street and on one Saturday morning (on our way to go yard saling) we stopped and had a nice conversation that lasted at least 30-40 minutes. The kids were having a ball playing in his yard, with his dog, digging in the dirt, picking flowers and so on. We finally left, went about our day and then came home hours later. While Daisy and I were sitting on the couch looking out the window, she said to me, "Mommy, let's go across the street and talk to the human." I almost died laughing! "The human?" I questioned just to make sure I heard her correctly. " Yeah, Mommy, the human."
# 4- This morning she informed me that she couldn't clean her room, "It makes me sick Mommy. I just can't do it."

Oh, Daisy, thank you for helping me smile every day. I love you so much!

Mobing sale!!!

I think the entire universe is aware of how much I LOVE yard sales. When I say love, I mean the kind of love that I feel for my husband and children! So, when I ran across this sign awhile back, you can imagine my shock and utter disbelief. If you look closely the sign says: MOBING SALE ALL WEEK. I laughed so hard and had to drive by the sign multiple times to see if what I was reading was correct. I was just sure if I continued to drive past it, it would magically spell MOVING SALE instead, but sadly, it never changed and the poor person never realized they broke yard sale rule # 1- GET YOUR SIGN RIGHT! I thought this was blog worthy. Hope it made you laugh!Yup, it is confirmed, Nampa has some real winners!

The laundry is done!!!

When ever I see the bottom of the laundry basket, I get this overwhelming urge to jump up and down, fling my arms around wildly and scream wonderful things for the world to hear. It would probably consist of something like, "Holy crap I did it!" I always want to share my joy with someone, but 6, 3 and 1 year olds don't care that the laundry is complete. So, instead I move on to the next task without praise from anyone and my crazy urges within begin to slowly fade away. Trav comments some times, but he doesn't get it. They have no idea the incredible battle it was to tackle the overflowing heap of clothing that smelled like urine, poop and sour milk. So, in honor of my empty laundry basket, I thought I should add it to my blog as evidence that only a woman would understand!

A morning at the car dealership...

Last week our brake light kept coming on, so I took the Jeep in to get an appointment. Of course it wasn't for days later and naturally it fell on a day that Trav was at work. It wasn't a problem except I had no idea how we were going to make it home, (most my girlfriends have mini vans, but they too, have lots of kids so we weren't all going to fit) until I found out they could shuttle you back home. Yeah! So we set out Thursday morning and had to wait while the "shuttle man" was in Meridian on his way back. The kids and I stayed outside, but I didn't want them running around the parking lot, so I took the car seats out of the Jeep and strapped the girls in them while we waited. They actually thought it was fun hanging outside against the wall. They also loved the ride home from the nice stranger. Thank you "shuttle man"!

Miss Daisy and the ducks...

Daisy loved the white duck, so we had to get a picture of her next to it. They had a great time at the park, but those poor ducks were fed the only food I had in my diaper bag- granola bars! We haven't been back to see if they are still alive or not, but I hope they survived. Next time we will definatly bring the bread!

She seriously wanted to jump in after those ducks!

Grace is fasinated by anything that moves, plus she loves water. So, a day at the park near the water and moving ducks was quite the adventure. We eventually had to leave because she was freaking me out, I doubt she would have drowned in a foot and 1/2 of water but she's fearless! I thought she looked so cute watching them.

A day at the park...

Last week we took the kids to the park for the afternoon. Wow, were we in trouble for not bring bread to feed the ducks! They had fun anyway. Here's Tristin just hanging out.

Grace's 1st camp out...

Grace was the reason I was so worried about the camp out. Like every other 19 month old on the planet, SHE'S EVERY WHERE!!! But it really wasn't that bad! Much better than I thought. For the first time in her life, she was a pain to get to sleep, and then she woke up at 4:45 am, but I actually got to snuggle with her for 2 hours! I think she was cold, so she fell asleep right away with me in my sleeping bag. Thank you Grace for an enjoyable time.

Tristin hiking up the hill...

Tristin had a blast hiking up the big hill near our tent, and then happily running down it about 10 times. He was completely filthy, but had so much fun. He loved camping and wanted to stay longer, maybe next time Buddy...

We survived the campout!!!

Honestly, I was not looking forward to our ward camp this weekend. I envisioned bears attacking our tent, my children drowning in the near by stream, mosiqutos biting my rear end again (probably the reason we haven't been camping for 8 years!) and germs that even my travel sized Lysol couldn't kill. But, I am pleased to report, none of those things happened! And, we all had a great time. (There were some bedtime issues, some snoring problems I had to endure and a few other unpleasant encounters) but other than those, it was no problem! Here is Daisy helping Trav sent up the tent. We arrived yesterday and are happily safe at home now. It was about a 24 hour trip, not too bad for our first family camp out!

My sweet Ryan...

Ryan has been my best guy friend and like a brother to me since 3rd grade. He's watched over me for most my life and he's just been like apart of the family,. Mom and Brent adore him as I do. We have so many fun memories with each other running around on the play ground when we were 9 and 10, passing notes in Junior high, being there for each other after break ups with boyfriends and girlfriends in High school, going on motorcycle rides ( my favorite was when I didn't realize my 4 inch boot was resting on his muffler and it melted half of my heel off! and left black rubber melted to his muffler), camping with his family, trips to his Dad's cabin ( my favorite was when he was so drunk one night and I was nominated to hold his throw up bowl. All I can say is it's a good thing he was my brother, because other people's vomit is so disgusting!) holidays with our families, the time we were Christmas shopping and laid down in a hammock, but I got up too fast and he flipped out of that thing and ended up on the floor! I'm still laughing about that! ( and a 1000 more memories). We've been through so much together and although our visits are few these days, we're still there when we need each other. We've been there through marriages, the military, divorce, jobs, kids, houses, and heartache. Ryan will always be one of the sweetest guys I know and one of my favorite people in the world.

Jessica & I relaxing with the girls...

I felt so bad for not posting more pictures of my friends ( taken on our trip in March. )Here's a picture of one of my best friends, Jessica, and her youngest daughter Julia. I'm SOOO glad I got to see Jess before she moved to New York (That sounds so grown up!) Jess has been stuck with me for 16 years now. We met when we were 12 and I've loved her every second since. She changed my life and I will never be able to repay her or her wonderful family for all that they have done for me. I love you Jess and miss you so much!

Happy Birthday to the stuffed animals!

A few months ago, Daisy was really sad that her birthday party was over. She kept talking about having another party and after 1000 attemps at trying to explain that her birthday only comes once a year, I gave up. I didn't know what to do because Tristin's party wasn't for a quite awhile and that sad look on her face was just too much for my poor heart to handle. So, one day I got to thinking, hey, we can make cupcakes any day and celebrate right? But I needed more than just that, so it came to me (probably while picking up their stuffed animals) that we could have a birthday party for their stuffed animals! Oh my goodness, did they hop aboard on that idea! Not only did we make cupcakes, but we even wrapped presents for them (that consisted of a bag of carrots from the fridge and a few other random things) sang happy Birthday and even blew out candles. Oh yes, it was quite the event! So here's a silly picture of that blessed day months ago when I became a pretty cool Mom for a couple of hours. They absoultely loved it! And of course, we are already planning another party!

I made cinnamon rolls again! (unbaked)

Travis was laughing at me yesterday as he walked in the kitchen because I was taking a picture of these cinnamon rolls. I told him I had to have evidence of the occasion. They actually looked so pretty all rolled up, I couldn't resist! They are super yummy too!

Here we are at Audra's house...

Here's one of Audra and I when we went to visit them in Washington. We had a lot of fun and the kids were in Heaven playing in their play room. I miss you Audra. Love you!

Audra comes for a visit!

I was so happy to see Audra again! She and her family stopped by a few days ago (they moved to Washington last year) on their visit here to Idaho. She is pregnant with a baby boy and he will hopefully arrive before September! I love you Audra!

My first bread making experience (by myself)!

Here is a picture of my first loaves of bread that I made all by myself! One loaf turned out kind of scary looking on the side, but who cares! I made bread! Today is a day that will be forever remembered in history... the day Emily attempted the impossible!