Flashback Friday

Last week when Sherry and I went to Thanksgiving Point the kids got to go on two pony rides and it reminded me of this old school picture. I have no idea if there was a special occasion associated with this pony ride all I know is that the outfit and the bandanna are too fun!

Happy 6th Birthday Tayson

I can't believe Tayson is 6 already....the time has flown by. Tayson has been so happy today and keeps saying how it's his special day and he calls himself the birthday boy. For his birthday this year we started the day with pancakes of course (we added sprinkles with his candle before singing) then he wanted to take a friend to McDonald's for lunch, then tonight after back to school night we are taking him to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. He's having his party tomorrow night at Chuck E. Cheese (just family no friend party this year - thank goodness).

I thought it would be fun to do an interview with Tayson of his favorite things.

What do you want to be when you grow up: A policeman...wait no a superhero
What do you like to do: Mostly just play and watch movies
What do you like about being 6: Getting toys for my b-day

Favorites
Color: blue and black
Movie: Spiderman the one where he fights the black spiderman (What??? he has never seen that movie since it's PG 13 - as a matter of fact I haven't even seen that movie)
Food: Spaghetti
Primary Song: I am a Child of God
Book: Spiderwick, Wall-E, and The Tale of Despereaux
TV Show: Spiderman (which he never watches since it's not on any of the channels we get)
Game: Sorry
Computer Game: Star wars, the new Clone Wars game (which once again we don't have but we got a teaser CD for the movie on the TV Guide so he can't wait for the game. He always plays World of Warcraft and MiniClips, especially Raft Wars)
Wii Game: Spiderman (another game we don't have, but a neighbor has it)

What do you love most about Daddy: he plays Lego Star Wars with me and now I want him to play Legos Indiana Jones with me
Mommy: I love you cause you make dinner for us
Luke: I don't like anything of him cause he always fights with me
Claire: Nothing about her either
Sophie: I love Sophie because she is so cute
Uncle Timmy: He tickles us when we want to play

Parenting Woes....

OK all you super mom's (and dad's) out there here are issues I'm currently struggling with with my kids. Yep, ALL of my kids have issues right now.

Tayson. How do I deal with the constant temper tantrums? Will he ever go to bed without crying? I don't know when to let him make his own decisions and when to force him to do something (like read, brush his teeth, eat his dinner, etc)?

Luke. Somehow I have created the most attached mamma's boy in the history of the world! He doesn't want anyone or anything except me and it drives everyone bonkers. If he needs a glass of water I'm the only person who can get it for him. He has to be touching me constantly and I have no idea how to break him of this.

Claire. She has started waking up every single night around 2 am and then plays in her room for 1-2 hours. She comes in and out of our room and wakes us up and then she sleeps until 10 in the morning. I've taken away her naps (except today...I couldn't handle her anymore so I put her down and I'm sure I'll regret it tonight) and I have no idea what else to do.

Sophie. Holy baby acne!!! My beautiful little girl looks like she has a disease of some sort. It all started with heat rash thanks to our long day hiking and it isn't getting better. All I'm doing is gentle baths (no scrubbing) and gentle lotion. It looks better after for a little bit but then it's just red dots all over her face again.

Advice?

GO Team USA!

I cannot get enough of the Olympics. I LOVE the summer games there are so many great events to watch. Some of my favorites are swimming, track and field, cycling, triathlon, gymnastics, and basketball. Todd wants to watch ping pong this year to get some new moves for playing at my parent's house too.

Did you see the men's 4x100 swimming relay yesterday? It was so amazing. We were up on our feet yelling at the TV cheering on our boys and it was such a sweet win. I didn't realize how much our kids watch cartoons until we booted them from watching TV and took over the tivo to record as many events as we can.

Go Team USA!!!

Stuart Falls

This week has been a blast with Sherry and her kids here. We have gone on fun outings everyday. We went to Thanksgiving point to the Farm, to the pool yesterday and decided to hike to Stuart Falls today. The last time I did that hike was probably about 10 years ago with a BYU ward. Boy was I mistaken when I described it as a short and very easy hike.

Sherry, my mom, my dad and I took the following kids Sophie (4 weeks), Roman (3 months), Claire (2), Luke (almost 4), Audrey (almost 5), Tayson (almost 6), Bruce (8) and Emma (10). As you can see the adults were very outnumbered. We started out with Sherry carrying Roman in a front wrap and Emma carried Sophie up to the top in the front wrap. I had Claire on my back in a hiking pack and the other kids were walking. It's 2 miles each way and the path wasn't very wide and was covered with lots of rocks and tree stumps. Needless to say, Audrey and Luke took several falls and were covered in dirt and not happy campers. Sherry ended up carrying Audrey and Roman most of the way down. I forced Luke to walk down since I had Sophie in the wrap on the way down and my awesome dad carried Claire on his shoulders part of the way up and all the way down.

I guess I was in better shape 10 years ago and had no idea how hard it is for little kids to hike! Good thing Sherry and my parents are patient and extremly tough!


Emma and Sophie


Sherry and Roman


Audrey - look at her dirty little face


Most of the hikers taking a quick break at the top.

Breaking Dawn

It's true I went to the midnight release party for Breaking Dawn. I go to bed very early (usually by 10 pm) and I'm dead tired by 9:00 every night. There are very few things I will stay up late for, but a good book is one of the only things that I will stay up for. Todd always laughs when I stay up reading because I can't put a book down. So it's only natural that I would stay up late in order to buy the last of the Twilight books. I have loved the series.

There were about 12 of us that met at 8:00 for dinner then headed over to Barnes & Noble to wait in line to buy the book. Thank goodness Maria and Alissa were willing to go pick up wrist bands for us that morning so we could get in and out fast. Right when we sat down to eat dinner I got a text message from Todd that Luke had just thrown up...so sad. But the good part of that is (besides not being there to clean it up) was that Todd put our sheets in the wash and forgot to put them in the dryer so I got to read that night for an hour while I waited. I'm already done with the book (which is one of the reasons I haven't posted much this week).

Sophie's Blessing

We blessed our sweet little girl this past Sunday. It was a great day surrounded by family and friends. We started the day going to 9:00 am church to my brother David's ward where he blessed sweet baby Glen. Then we headed over to my parents house for a luncheon then off to church again at 1:00 where we blessed Sophie.

The blessing was great and I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband and that my kids have such a great dad. Sophie is one lucky little girl to have a daddy who loves her so much.

Here are a few pictures from Sophie's big day.

**Warning picture overload**


Sophie in her blessing dress


The blessing circle



Our family....it was so hard to get a picture that looked good. Oh well.


Todd's family


My family



My mom, Sophie and I


Sophie with both of her wonderful grandma's


Todd's mom, Todd, Sophie and Todd's grandpa


David, Kami and Glen