Luke's Party

Because of how fun Tayson's party was Luke changed his mind on Chuck E. Cheese and we ended up having the exact same party (guests and all) 2 weeks later. That said, it was just as fun the second time around! We love parties - especially when they involve family, food, and fun!

Here's how the party went down: Water balloon fight - Round 1

check out how high Mark is off the ground in this picture....crazy!

We stopped round 1 after the first set of balloons were gone since not everyone was there yet. Steve missed round 1 while cleaning his garage so when he said he was walking over the boys went out and hid behind the fence and got him pretty good.

Then we had a balloon toss

Followed by round 2 - the final battle. It was crazy and there were lots of red welts by the end (thankfully the adults only hit each other and the kids didn't have any welts)

Then everyone got one last balloon and popped them on Luke for his birthday.
He loved the attention.

The kids jumped on the trampoline while we grilled dogs and brats for dinner

We ate then did birthday cake

Luke wanted the piece with his name on it. It was huge and he didn't make it through half of it.

Then we opened presents.
a few things to note about this picture: Heidi is reading Mockingjay, Dad is wearing shorts, the girls are in dress up & finding Luke among all the kids is like a where's waldo game.

It was a good day!

Claire's First Day of Preschool

I can't believe Claire is already starting preschool. How did she get so old so soon? That means I have 3 leaving the house everyday and 1 who is dying to join them.

Sophie really wants to go every time the boys or Claire get their backpacks and shoes.

Oh how I love these 2 girls. They are too cute and keep me laughing. Everyone always asks me how close they are in age or can't believe I have 2 that close in age. And the funny part is that these 2 are the furthest apart at 26 months.

Claire loves her backpack.

Here she is at school (same one the boys went to)

My BIG girl.

I hope she likes school. I always worry about her since she is so shy but when I dropped her off she was quiet but didn't seem scared at all and there were definitely no tears. She was so excited to be going to school and she has already talked about her new friends.

Luke's Birthday

We started our day with birthday pancakes (horrible picture - oh well) then the boys headed off to school. Luke took treats to school for his birthday - the day before we met with his teacher for his assessment testing (which he rocked) and Luke asked if he could bring treats the next day for his birthday. His teacher said "that would be great, plus we don't have anyone bringing treats for our color day". Then Luke said "I will bring Twinkies because they are yellow". His teacher and I got a kick out of him trying to make sure his birthday treats worked for yellow day.


Then after work we all jumped in the car to go pick up Todd from the airport and went to The Cheesecake Factory for Luke's birthday dinner. I think having Todd home for his birthday dinner was the best present ever. He sat on the end in his "special birthday seat" and would get mad at Sophie when she would try to sit there.

Happy Birthday Bubba! We love you!!!

First Day of School 2010

I can't believe summer is over. No more late nights and lazy mornings. I'm not looking forward to the stress of getting the boys ready, fed and off to school by 8:00 am every morning but all good things come to an end. When Luke woke up this morning he said "first day of school" he was so excited. I love how much he loves school. I can't say Tayson was as happy about it. This year their school did something different and instead of back to school night it was back to school day today so from 8:20 - 10 they could go meet their teachers and sign-up for things. It was good to meet both of their teachers.




One cute thing that happened when we were there was that Luke saw his kindergarten teacher from last year and went up to say hi and give her a hug. As he was talking to her his 1st grade teacher came out and said "I got him!" It was so funny. They were standing there with us talking about how cute he is and what a good student he is. He just stood there happy and smiling. He loves school.

More details

A few more things about Tayson turning 8.

He was so excited to get rid of his car seat. It definitely showed how big and old he is now. He loves talking about how he doesn't need a car seat.

At his doctor's appointment he is weighing in at 55 lbs (43%) and is 51 inches tall (73%). The doctor also checked his BMI and he's in the 16%.

I also did a little "interview" with him.

Me: You going to go to college?
T: I have to.
Me: Where to?
T: BYU
Me: You going to go on a mission?
T: Yea, I have to.
Me: You going to get married?
T: I guess so....but I can't marry Lucy because she's too crazy for me.
Me: That's fine. Someday you're going to love some girl you want to kiss her all the time and you'll want to get married.
T: Whatever mom.
Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?
T: I don't know....do you think I need a lot of money or a little money? I guess if I need a lot of money I'll do what dad does and if I need a little money maybe I'll play for the Jazz.
Me: Well buddy Jazz players make way more money than mom or dad does.
T: They do? Then why doesn't dad play for the Lakers?
Me: (trying not to laugh) well it's just not that easy to play for the Lakers or the Jazz
T: Well I guess I'll either play for the Jazz or become a championship swimmer.
Me: OK sounds good.
T: I'm just going to take swimming and basketball classes at BYU I think.
Me: sounds like a plan.

Man I love that boy!!!

Tayson turns 8

When I asked Tayson what he wanted to do for his birthday he said he wanted to have a water balloon fight with all of his cousins. So we bar-b-qued for lunch and opened presents first. My kids are so spoiled by having so much family.

Sophie opened up several of his presents as well

Then we headed outside and while I filled water balloons they filled a tiny pool (that Sophie got for her birthday from her cousin Emma) with water and balls for dodge ball. Glen loved swimming in the pool and kept dumping out the water then asking us to fill it back up. It was hilarious - at one point both Glen and Soph were trying to get in the pool.

Then we started with a water balloon toss.

Todd making sure Steve doesn't win
(check out his calves....woowzers!!!)

Next was the full blown water balloon fight. It took me a good hour to fill the balloons and only a few minutes of pure joy to break them all.

Annabell and Claire would just grab balloons and pop them - it was very funny to watch them.

The boys wanted to dump the water on Steve...but Glen ran in front of them and the water dumped out early. Lucky for Steve.

Then the boys all got one last water balloon we sang to Tayson and they all hit him with their balloons. He didn't love getting hit by all those balloons but I think he liked the attention.

Tayson looks so excited while we get ready to sing to him.

Because Steve escaped the water they got him with frosting instead. HILARIOUS! Check out Christine's face....soooooo funny!

Then the kids started playing with the toys.

After the party Tayson wanted to go to Brick Oven for his b-day dinner. So Todd, Heidi and I took Tayson, Luke, Claire, Allen, Ryan, Annabell & Lexie to dinner. Steve and Christine watched the little girls for us - thank goodness. It was a great birthday. I sure do love Tayson and soon his big baptism day will be here.

Mornings with Sophie

This is how most mornings go with Sophie lately:

2:30 am - wake up to go potty and take another bottle to go back to sleep (after wandering around the house for a bit after climbing out of her crib)

5:40 am - wake up to go potty again (same basics as 2:30)

6:30 am - crawl in bed with me and lay on my chest resting for 30 minutes (during which time I am uncomfortable and can't sleep)

7:30 am - get in the shower with me and push me out of the way when not getting enough water. stay in the bath while I get ready for the day.

8:00 am - get dressed and play on the iPhone or play Dora on the computer

8:30 am - put on shoes to leave for the day with me - throw a huge fit when forced to stay at home

On this particular day at 8:30 she managed to get her pink snow boots on (one of her favorite pair of shoes) and went out in the garage and had Claire's bike helmet on before I was out the door. She was dying to ride Claire's bike. The boys came out to help her so I could go to work but I couldn't help but snap a few pictures.....the girl is just so dang cute!

Provo River Trail 1/2 Marathon

It just so happened that David and Kami scheduled Dean's baby blessing on the same weekend as the Provo River Trail 1/2 marathon. A few months back when I was training for Ragnar Todd said since he is traveling so much and can't do triathlons he wanted to do a 1/2 marathon. So I found this one and signed us both up. Then because Danny was coming in town for the baby blessing he signed up too. YIPPEE!

Danny, Todd & I at the start

Danny finishing strong

Todd coming in strong to the finish

After the race

I have been having a really hard time staying motivated with running since Ragnar - that race just took it all out of me. But we had already signed up and I really wanted to do this run with 2 of my favorite guys so I got out there and did it. It was a nice downhill run (except for 1 mile from 7-8 which was a slight uphill) so it was a very fast run. Both of my 1/2 marathons from last year I finished in 1:58 so I really wanted to beat that time. I finished in 1:49 (my garmin said an 8:20 pace)! WOO HOO! Todd came in at 1:50 and we were by each other but not running "together" the whole race. Danny kicked butt and came in under 1:30 - holy cow.

There are no pictures of me at the finish because Danny told Timmy that I was wearing a white top so he missed me when I came cruising by in my all black outfit :)

Just Some Stuff

My kids are so excited that Steve and Christine are back!!! And it's not just their kids being home. Last night all 4 of my kids and I went over there to hang out with Christine. Steve had taken the boys to see a movie. We watched "Wipeout" and it was awesome. The funniest part was that the boys both left right after dinner then Claire said she wanted to go and I told her she needed shoes. She went into the shoe closet and came out saying "can I wear Sophie's shoes?" and had on a pair of plastic Snow White slippers. Then Sophie wanted to go over too and she spent 15 minutes in the shoe room trying to find a matching pair of shoes then finally came out wearing her pink snow boots. She is too young to go over by herself but tried breaking out through the garage since it wasn't all the way down. I caught her in the front yard and she was sooooo sad she didn't get to go. So we went over to get the mail and stopped by to chat. I love love love that they are home. It was a long summer without them.

A big accomplishment

This kid is about to turn 8. Last year we decided to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover before his baptism. We finished today. What an amazing goal. The goal was to read 2 pages each night and we gave ourselves a little over a year. I am so proud of Tayson for making his goal. Most nights I ended up reading most of it (if not all that day). He did read the last verse because he really wanted to finish it off. After we finished I read him Moroni's promise and told him that he should pray about it to know it was true. He was so cute when he said his prayer then right after he said "I feel the same mom, but I already knew it was true". I guess that's good enough.

I am so proud of him and I can't believe he is about to get baptized.