We love to explore TX

Spring break FLEW by.  With Gavin being sick for the first 1/2 we decided to stay in Austin and just do little day adventures when he started feeling better.   We did go to Jump street the indoor trampoline place they love and then to the movie The Lorax which I thought was really cute.  Then we went to sweet berry farms to pick strawberries.  I wasn't aware they had goats and horses there.  So the boys lost interest fast when it came to the berry picking and we just spent time feeding the animals. It didn't help that they day before the berries were picked to the max and we really had to search for some decent ones.   I miss Remlinger farms in Washington they always had the best fruit and fun little things for the kids to do.  Oh and the pie.  Best pie EVER!!!! 

Gavin was a little afraid of the goats.  So I showed him how they would eat grass and then he wouldn't leave them alone.  Those goats were very well fed by my boys.

Josh LOVES any animal and could of stayed here all day.

Even Trevor got in on the goat feeding business

Josh was the only one brave enough to actually feed the goats real goat food.  Right out of his hand.  I was so glad they had handy dandy hand sanitizer right next to them.

Our pathetic strawberry picking patch

The next day after Gavin's swim lessons we went to Enchanted Rock.  Last time we went we only made it 1/2 way up because Trevor fell and had to get stitches in his lucky elbow.  So we were very determined to make it to the top this time.  It was a perfect day.  We stopped at Coopers our all time favorite BBQ place then headed to the ROCK.  My kids kept calling it a Mountain.  Ryan and I had to laugh as they really don't remember what a Mountain looks like I guess.    The kids all loved it as did Ryan and I.  Everyone got along so well and Trevor was so helpful with his two younger brothers.  The weather was perfect and the boys were great.  Such a amazing way to end our spring break.

1/2 way up

Gavin's shoe kept falling off.  Taking a little stop to put it back on for the 100th time.

The boys approve

To cute not to post.  Gavin loved that it was so windy and we were standing sideways on a very steep hill.

Josh loves to pose for the camera.

These two were best buddies on the hike.  It was so nice they had been fighting all week driving me crazy.  They got lost at one point and really had to work together.  The whole way home they got along and kept thanking each other for saving their life.  I told Ryan next time they are going at it I'm dropping them off in the forest and telling them they have to find a way out together.  It was just so wonderful to have no fighting. 

Enjoying the view at the top.  And trying to keep Gavin out of the little pond. 

Taking a little break on the way down.  Now that was the tricky part.

Love Trevor's hair in the wind it's SWEET.

Best day ever with the best boys ever. 


They kept singing this song on the way home.  Ryan and I couldn't stop laughing what a random song.  I'm glad I recorded it.  Sadly you can't see them because it was so dark .  But again with all three of them getting along and singing the same song it was such a PERFECT day.

Spring break here we come ready or not.

Gavin got Hand foot and mouth.  It's been rough!!!  The older two boys are following him around with Lysol wipes and making sure they clean every surface he touches.  They are not germ freaks like me and usually don't care but Gavin's pain is very noticeable and the scores are unbearable to look at that they don't want to get it at any cost.  I don't blame them I've felt so bad for little man.  But I feel so blessed that I have a worthy priesthood holder in my house and he was able to give Gavin a fathers blessing.  It sure calmed down my nerves and helped Gavin get some much needed sleep.  Today he's finally drinking water with out screaming the whole time and I got 3 spoonfuls of cream of wheat down him.  Which was a huge improvements as he's eaten NOTHING for 4 wretched days.

And this was the start of our spring break.

To back up the start of our week we had so much going on.


The weather was amazing.  So I texted my Mom "The weather is great here I wish you could join me."  And she texted back  "I'll see you on Friday."  And was Serious.  They were going to come out for our Spring break but due to some other conflicts of time this was the best time for them to come up.  I felt bad because I had a crazy schedule. I tried to re arrange a few things, but in the end we didn't get to do much.  And can you believe I didn't take ONE picture.  How lame is that? 

My Dad again is always amazing and installed new fans in the boys rooms,  fixed my pantry doors that would no longer shut for some reason and put new weather stripping on our front and back doors. 

They watched the boys for us one night so Ryan and I could go to the San Antonio temple and then spend the night in San Antonio.  It was such a nice night and such a great break. I really needed that.   I'm so blessed to have such great parents.  The boys had a great time hanging out with them and the two older boys were my Dad's right hand man.  They loved helping him out and just sitting and listening to his story's.  My Dad doesn't talk much, and is a GOOD listener so he  was my little chatter box Gavin's buddy that's for sure.  My Mom played cute games with them and we all just enjoyed seeing eachother.  They never stay long enough.

Trevor was in his 1st school play.  He had to take Drama.  And was so not happy about it..  Trevor was not a shy kid when he was little but he's now gotten more reserved and feels awkward alot.  So he usually keeps quite in a group situation.    He did not want to have any speaking parts in the play but all kids had to have some part so he was a Tree and the 1st act.  Then in the 2nd  he was Cinderella's Dad.  I couldn't tell you his part. When it was his turn he whispered it.  I asked him to tell me what he said and he still wouldn't tell me, he said "it's dumb."  He's starting to turn into a teenanger I'm afraid.

Gavin started Swim lessons.  And oh man he had a complete freak out when they had him go on his back.  He kept screaming Don't make me drowned.  When they pulled him out and I tried to calm him down. He kept talking about the time he almost drowned 2 years ago..  He's been swimming several times since then and has been in lessons for years but for some reason it came back to his memory and he lost it.  It really tugged at my heart strings but I knew it would be best for him to get back into the water.  The instructor was amazing and worked so well with him and by the end he was smiling.  I hope he's happy next Friday when we go.  I'm not giving up as we spend all summer in the water pretty much he has to learn to swim for his safety and my sanity.

When Gavin is nervous he crams his whole hand in his mouth.  Hum wonder why he got hand foot and mouth.


Gavin also had his spring pre-school performance.  I give props to the teacher to try and keep a whole lot of 4 and 5 year olds to stand in one place and sing a bunch of songs.  Here was my favorite one.

Then it was Ryan's Birthday.  I felt so bad I tried to have a nice Birthday for him but the weather was Horrible.  It was raining like Crazy.  When it rains here you can't go out in it like Seattle.  It just comes down in Sheets and you are drenched in two seconds.  And this was the worst day of Gavin being sick.  It started Friday night and by Saturday he was just miserable!!!  So we stayed home and I just cooked his favorite dinner Chicken Satay with killer peanut sauce and Creme brulee for dessert. I spent most of my day at the Dr's office while Ryan got to stay home with the older boys and play video games.  I'm pretty sure he was happy with that.    I did get him tickets to see Dave Ramsey and I was so glad that we could go out last week and get a little time together.   Love this man so much.

The rest of the week we have been coped up waiting out the rain and hoping Gavin will be better so we can do something fun for spring break. And this Mom doesn't lose her mind trying to keep the peace. 


Just a forclosure.  Once I knew Gavin was sick I havent' taken him out in public!!!   He did all these things BEFORE he was sick.

Cowboy day.

Gavin's pre-school is having rodeo day.  I can't believe we lived in TX 5 years and have only one crappy toy cowboy hat and a bandanna.  So I went and got Gavin a really cute out fit.  Well he wasn't having anything to do with it.  I mean Nothing.  I convinced him to wear the hat and bandanna for a picture.  But I tell you he was not happy to be a cowboy.

Talk about miserable. 

This is his famous look of "Mom why do you make me do these things?" 

Some day one of my boys will want to wear Levis and cowboy boots.  "Maybe?"

A little bit of love

It's been quite the week.   1st Ryan got his Dream car. (well my dream car.)  I'm not much of a car person as long as it gets me from point A to point B with out problems I'm fine.  But Ryan has had a love of cars the day he was born.  And the poor guy had to drive a car that kept braking down.  He travels so much I'd always get nervous having him drive.  And so he started renting.  Which is really sad the car rental place knew him by name.  He was like Norm on cheers there.  After 3 years of searching he finally decided to get a new car.  Now I've planed a little seed I'm sure as I have been saying for about 10 years how much I like the Acura MDX.  It was my one lust after car.  When he said he was looking at it I could help but get a little excited but I left the decision 100% up to him since he was driving it.  And he narrowed it down to my dream car.  Now I'm a little jealous.  But we got in thinking in about 5 years we wont need the van anymore and I can take that car while he gets one that has better gas mileage.   The problem is we couldn't find one that was good deal close to us.  So Ryan had to go to Tyler Tx to pick it up.  A long 8 hr drive for him.  I thought the kids would go CRAZY so I offered to stay and thought it would be a great experience for Trevor to join him.  And man was I right he Loved being a part of it and was so excited to come home and show me all the In's and out of the car.  Way to many buttons for me.  But I'm happy Ryan's happy and alot safer when he travels.

Next I love going to musicals or live plays.  Ryan is such a good sport and will take me when it's one that he can tolerate.  So I saw Wicked was coming to Austin and I've been dieing to see it.  So for a early Valentines gift we went.  It was so fun and such a great Play.  We both had a great time.

Next up we had to make all the boys Valentines day stuff.  I've become obsessed with Pinterest.  While I'm not a crafty person I love seeing other people creative ideas and being able to do fun things with my kids.  I showed this box to Josh and he was super excited to make it.  Finally not a fluffy girly box.    We did our traditional decorating of Sugar cookies and had a great craft day.

 And how lucky on Valentines day his Dad was a watch dog.  Josh said it was the BEST DAY OF HIS LIFE!!!!  He has such a great Dad. 

 And I got to help out at Gavin's party.  I always love going to his class and seeing him interact with the other kids.  He's such a easy going kid. 

 Then for dinner we had heart shaped pizza.  Thanks to Pappa Murphy's $6 pizza how cool is that?  Why didn't I know about this all these years.  I've always made them all individual heart shaped pizza it took forever.  And they were just as happy with this.  And like always a dirt strawberry parfait for dessert. 

 Gavin wanted to take a picture.  He did pretty good.

Today is my parents 51st wedding anniversary.  How cool is that?  I feel so blessed to have two parents who love each other so much.  And I'm so glad I get to celebrate another Valentines day with my Amazing Husband.  I couldn't of asked for anyone better.  I love him so much.

Now for our next week full of adventures. 

Taylor

My sweet Nephew Taylor is going on a mission to West Virginia in March..  And I couldn't be more proud of him.  He has always had such a special place in my heart.  When I lived with my brother for a summer I shared a room with Taylor when he was just a little baby.  Most morning I would be woken up by him chucking his Binky at me.  One morning I heard a bunch of noise and saw him jump from his crib into his toy boys and then scooted over to me and poked me in the eyes to get me up.  He was my little buddy and gave the best cuddles.  He's still that thrill seeker today and loves to dirt bike, water ski, tube anything active he will be all over it.  I wish I could go to his farewell and wish him a good bye.  But I hope he knows I'm there in my heart.   I know he will be the BEST missionary because he has such a compassion for people and is so loving.

Congratulations Taylor.  Again I'm so proud of the choice you have made. I'm very proud to be your Aunt. 

I love this picture of him.   A true surfer dude.

Taylor and his sweet sisters who also adore him.

Love you so much Taylor.  See you in two years!!!

Derby 2012 and my 100 year old son.

Josh has been waiting for his 1st Derby for 3 years now.   He was so excited.  Until we found out the Derby is the same day as his 3rd grade musical.  Now Josh's wouldn't normally care about a musical but he had several speaking parts and was really excited to be part of the program.  So I left it up to him to decide what he wanted to do.  Telling him he will have 2 other Derby's he can participate in and only this one 3rd grade musical.  This is the kid that if I ask him what he wants for Breakfast we will be here for hr's waiting for him to decide.  He can not ever make up his mind.   So he said to me. " Mom that's just to hard of a choice for a 8 year old to have to figure out can't you call the school and ask them to change the date."  Luckily we had several days notice and he went back and fort and then decided the Derby was one he just didn't want to miss. 


So Ryan and Josh built his car. Got it all shined up and off we went. And wouldn't you know it he made it to the finals. Poor Trevor's cars always fell off the track, or came in 2nd to last. I think last year he made it to 5th place. So Josh was super excited and I was so grateful for Trevor cheering him on. He kept telling him how awesome it was. After about a million races Josh came in 2nd. Not to shappy. It was a long, loud night.

Gavin was happy he got a little turn at the 1st while we were waiting on everyone to come.

Josh testing it out.

Poor Gavin there wasn't a boy his age there.  Good thing he gets along with all these girls.

All the boys waiting to race.  We have a HUGE  group of boys.

All the cars

2nd place.  Good job boys.

One of Josh's many races.  The night lasted FOREVER!!!

And the next day was the 100th day of school.  They asked the kids to dress up like a 100 year old person.  This was the best we could come up with on short notice and a late night.

Josh doing his old man impression

I used glue (Elmer's)  to glue broken up Q tips and put baby powder in his hair.  Really he just told me about this at 6:50 in the morning and wanted to dress up so badly that's about all I could come up with.    Good thing it's early out and Elmer's in non toxic. 

Love this kid!!!

Questions.

I was a super shy kid my Mom said I hid under the couch and didn't talk to ANYONE the 1st 11 years of my life.  My Dad said he thought I hated him as I never talked to him.  I'm still super shy but I really try hard to approach people and talk to them. As this has been something that has plagued me all my life,  I  prayed that my kids wouldn't be as shy as me.  And I now realized I should of  tweaked my prayers.  I should of prayed for my kids to have a filter.  Because my kids are not shy at all.    My kids questions are not limited to me.  And when they were younger I would just fear going out in public as I never knew what my day would bring with their very inquisitive minds. They have  asked a sweet colored lady if she was made of Chocolate,  to a guy who was smoking why he wanted to kill himself slowly. Or telling the public something very personal about me.  Like I'm broken. http://www.suzettejen.blogspot.com/2008/01/broken.html It's always a delight when I leave a store beat red and have to explain that I didn't teach my kids that I promise.

  My kids are are always full of questions.  And now they are getting to be more grown up questions. In my house growing up we didn't talk about things. Like grown up things. And I know I would of NEVER asked questions. So I always try to be open and honest and not shy away from the answers but sometimes it's just to much for me.   I wont go into detail on many, but I'll just say it's a delight being the only girl in the house.  Sometimes when they come to me I'll say" go ask Dad "and Ryan comes in all mad at me saying "why would you have the kids ask me that?"  Like I told the kids to ask it in the 1st place.  But half the time he's not home so I get to answer the very detailed questions.   And most of the time they walk away looking at me like I'm the insane one.

  Tonight we were settling down and watching America's funniest home videos. One of the situations was a baby getting circumcised in a ceremony at a church.  And just as they were about to do the procedure a little kid screams. " No don't do it."  So naturally in my world that spiked up a conversation with my kids. They had no clue what  they were doing to the baby. I had Ryan tell them what it was and they seemed fine with it.  But as the night went on somehow I got the blame and  all 3 of my boys went to bed super mad at me for allowing that to happened to them.

  It is moments like this that I wonder who is up there laughing at me.   And realize how much I need a girls night out!!!

Christmas 2011

Wow it goes by faster and faster each year.  The kids were bouncing off the walls literally with excitement, and shook a few presents or two to death.  Ryan got a kidney stone and I another sinus infection.  SWEET my 3rd one in a month I'm gong a bit crazy.  I say just cut off my nose I've never liked it anyway...

Anyway here are a few highlights of our day.

This year we made a gingerbread village.  It was all sorts of fun :) 

Our traditional Chocolate fountain party on Christmas eve. 

Gavin should wear a body bib when doing this he turns into a big chocolate kid.

Not sure what Ryan is doing here.  He was all sorts of different kind of fun with the pain killers he was on. 

After watching Elf.  Josh had a grand idea and decorated Ryan's den.  It was so cute.

Oh Christmas tree.  We put the star on a timer only problem it came on during the day and not the night we had no idea how to fix it. :)..

Reading the letter from Santa.  We also learned that if you leave a candy cane cookie for Santa and there is a little candy cane left on the plate Santa will leave you ANTS for Christmas.  Isn't that so nice of him :)

Gavin's theme this year Club penguin, Charlie Brown and Angry birds.  He's such a happy kid.

Ryan got the boys a insane air soft gun.  I just want to clarify it was NOT MY IDEA!!! 

Trevor's.  This is all he wanted.  We didn't see him the rest of the day.

Like Father like Son.  I think Ryan would of liked one just as much as the boys. 

And a play mobile slide, with a tornado machine.  Gavin said he's so lucky he was such a good boy for Santa to leave him so many cool things.

The Christmas explosion. 

Time for Church.  Or as the boys used it as NAP time.  Look at those tired eyes. 

Josh

Trevor's awkward smile.  He's at such a funny age.

And the one toy this year that was a nightmare.  This stupid remote control shark. Josh begged for.  It took forever to put together then I accidentally over filled it with helium. Helium  that we drove around Christmas eve trying to find. And it got stuck on our 20 foot ceiling with no way to get it down.  BEST GIFT EVER (NOT)!!!!  Josh said we always needed something there it's to plain looking anyways.  :)

Our sweet neighbor next door who is  from Brazil came over with her whole family.  The whole gang saw me in my pj's sweet.  They sat down and sang Christmas songs (in Portuguese) and loved on the boys. It was the highlight of my day.   This little boy in Red has never been to the states and didn't know any English.  He and Josh became quick friends and we learned that you don't need to speak the same language to play wipe out on the kinect. It was so cute to watch them.

And I'm sure they think Americans are CRAZY because this is what they got to see.

Christmas Dinner.  Thanks to my friend Kami for the yummy Ham recipe and we had enough ham to feed an ARMY we will be having ham for the rest of the week.  And I got plastic special glasses for the sparkling cider this year.  I''ve learned glass and boys don't work to well.


Now to recover from the events.  And pray that Ryans stone passes so we can enjoy our week together.